Tata Sons refutes Swamy allegations on Air Asia India

Tata Sons Thursday refuted certain allegations on Air Asia India leveled by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In a statement, the company said that Air Asia India has received all permission from the Indian government and the DGCA to start operations and despite various application made, amongst others, by Swamy, no injunctions were ordered by any court on the issue.

"The Delhi High Court is seized of the matter and AAI and Tata Sons shall honour its ruling," the company statement said.

"Vested interests, inimical to free and fair competition that can benefit air travellers, are spreading canards to jeopardise the operations of Air Asia India. New airlines, like AAI, will immensely benefit consumers, making air travel more affordable. This has already been witnessed in movements in air fares in the last two weeks, thereby helping to expand the growth of civil aviation in the country," Tata Sons said.

Swamy has also made allegations pertaining to Indian Rotorcraf Ltd (IRL), the Tata Sons' joint venture with AgustaWestland, that Ratan N. Tata was asummoned by an Italian criminal court in relation to the sale of AgustaWestland helicopters to India.

"Tata Sons clarifies that Ratan N. Tata was not summoned by the Italian criminal court. He voluntarily appeared as a witness, at the request of (Guiseppe) Orsi, former CEO of Agusta Westland," the company said.

Ratan Tata's deposition before this court only related to his interactions with Orsi relating to the joint venture between the Tatas-AW and had no connection whatsoever with the supply of helicopters from AW to the Government of India, it added.

Besides, the company made it clear that IRL has no connection whatsoever with AW's supply of AW101 military helicopters to India.

IRL's business proposition is to assemble AW119ke helicopters, at a facility in Hyderabad, for exports to AW for it to sell them to its customers. IRL's business remit does not include any selling activity for defence related entities, it pointed out.