The war between Tata group and its former chief has been ramped up again and this time it is Tata Trusts that has got into the act. A Rs 500 crore criminal defamation complaint was lodged last month against Cyrus Mistry and others by R Venkataramanan, managing trustee of the Tata Trusts through his lawyers, according to an official, as quoted in an IANS report. The process in the same case has been initiated today by the court. The case has also been filed against Shaporji Mistry and other directors of Cyrus Investments & Sterling Investments and they will be tried for criminal defamation. The battle has been going on ever since former Tata group chief Ratan Tata stepped in to ease Mistry out of his high post and take over the group himself. He exited it thereafter, but only after putting in place his new successor, former Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) chief N Chandrasekaran.
As per the report, the process was initiated by Metropolitan Magistrate K.G. Paldewar and accordingly, Mistry, the former Tata chief and other directors of Cyrus Investments Pvt Ltd and Sterling Investments Pvt Ltd, will be tried for criminal defamation. The Mistry group will have to appear before the court and execute bail bonds. The charges will be framed against them later under the section that deals with criminal defamation and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code.
Further hearing in the case will take place on August 24, as the matter has been posted and Mistry along with others will have to appear before it for bail. R Venkataramanan’s counsel Parvez Memon told the court that, “All such allegations were hurled irresponsibly against Venkataramanan, Ratan Tata, Tata Sons and others only after his unceremonious ouster from Tata Sons. Why was he otherwise silent for his entire tenure, not to speak about several of his own wrongdoings against which Tata Sons may have its own cause of action.”
