Fresh Bat-Fi Talks To Draw Up Board-Meet Strategy

The meeting will take place before the ITC board meeting scheduled for November 15.

BAT has made it clear that it is keen on sweeping board-level changes that will give ITC a new leadership over the next few months.

BAT has not said yet whether it favours removing ITC chairman Yogi Deveshwar. However, they have indicated that they would like to re-open the issue of whether ITC should have a non-executive chairman.

A BAT spokesman indicated that the arrest of ITC director Saurabh Mishra would add to ITC's problems.

"The potential attendees at next week's board meeting are getting thinner on the ground. It does make the short-term problem of how to keep ITC moving forward that much more urgent," he said.

 

At the same time, BAT executives say they are going ahead with plans to introduce international brands like State Express 555 in the near future. "The timing of that is not entirely in our hands. It depends on what moves our competitors make," said BAT spokesman Michael Prideaux.

Our Bureau in Calcutta adds:

Chief metropolitan magistrate Ashim Kumar Dasgupta yesterday turned down bail applications of ITC deputy chairman Saurabh Misra and senior executive vice-president R Ranganathan.

They have been remanded to judicial custody till November 22 for their alleged involvement in "transactions which can be construed as violation of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973."

Misra, who is next to chairman Y C Deveshwar on the ITC board and the seniormost executive to be taken into custody for alleged Fera violations, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate along with Ranganathan late on Thursday night.

Rejecting the bail applications, the CMM said the two accused were facing charges for under-invoicing leaf tobacco exports and

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