Mumbai: Cyrus Mistry Sunday escalated his war of words with Tatas by accusing Vijay Singh, a nominee director on the Tata Sons board, of playing a key role in the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP choppers scam.
"As defence secretary, Singh was a key official involved in award of Rs 3,600 crore VVIP helicopter contract to AugustaWestland in 2010," reports said quoting a statement from Mistry's office.
India had on January 1, 2014 scrapped the contract with Finmeccanica's British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of paying kickbacks of Rs 423 crore by it for securing the deal.
Mistry said Singh was cooking up theories "to defend his role in the conspiracy" hatched by Ratan Tata to sack him as the chairman.
"It's amusing to see Vijay Singh concoct theories to defend his role in Ratan Tata's conspiracy to replace Mistry," a statement issued from his office claimed Sunday.
Mistry also claimed that being a part of the nominations and remuneration committee (NRC) of Tata Sons, Singh had on June 28, 2016 gave a glowing review of his (Mistry's) performance as the chairman of the Tata Group.
"After reviewing the performance of the chairman, the members unanimously recorded their recognition of his significant contributions across group companies and expressed their appreciation of his multi-faceted initiatives aimed at preserving and promoting cohesive functioning of the group in accordance of its distinctive values," Mistry said quoting from the minutes of the meeting as recorded by the board of Tata Sons.
On charges that "Mistry was doing nothing" at Tata Motors, the ousted chairman claimed that Singh had stated that "Tata Motors has come up with some of their best models in recent years under his watch".
He also said Singh was part of the Tata Sons board that agreed that the company could evaluate opportunities in the QSR segment at the board meeting on June 29, 2016. Singh had said this was one of the reasons for the sacking of Mistry.
Singh had claimed that another reason for Ratan Tata losing his confidence in Mistry was the group's failed bids (two separate bids Tata Power and Tata Motors for the multi-thousand crore Future Combat Infantry Vehicle contract from the Army).
On this, Mistry Sunday said Singh and Tata both were very much in the loop on various discussions on the project.
"What is beyond comprehension is that Singh seems to want Tata Sons to favor one listed Tata company over another. This would not happen under Mistry's watch," the statement said.
(With agency inputs)
