SME Times News Bureau | 25 Jan, 2020
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned former Tata Sons director
R. Venkataramanan for questioning in the Air Asia investigation.
The ED has summoned Venkataramanan on February 10 at 10 a.m. at its Delhi office for questioning under the PMLA Act 2002.
A
spokesperson for Tata Sons in a statement issued on Friday said, "A
section of the media has reported that R. Venkataramanan had ignored
summons by the ED and agencies on three occasions. During the relevant
period, R. Venkataramanan was a non-executive nominee Director of Tata
Sons on the board of Air Asia India Limited."
"Such an allegation
is factually incorrect. Mr Venkataramanan has not ignored summons from
ED or any other agency. The ED summons have been received by him for the
first time on January 22, 2020 and Mr. Venkataramanan has confirmed
that he will be attending to the ED summons as required," the statement
said.
"Based on due enquiry undertaken by Air Asia India Limited,
there has been no wrongdoing by R Venkataramanan," a Tata Sons
spokesperson said.
Venkataramanan is a former Tata Trusts
Managing Trustee. He quit Tata Trusts last year amid allegations of
misuse of I-T exemptions.
While Venkataramaman is no more working
with the Tata group, the group well-known for its ethical standards is
defending him because he worked in the group at that point of time to
which the enquiry pertains. Venkataramanan now works for Reliance
Industries Limited (RIL).