HC notice to Pallonji in illegal gratification case

The Bombay High Court today issued a notice to Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry, father of Tata Group chairman designate Cyrus Mistry, on a public interest litigation filed alleging that his real estate company had given an illegal gratification of Rs 250 crore to a company owned by Nitesh Thakur, former deputy collector of Mhada.

Nitesh has been arrested by the state Anti-Corruption Bureau on charges of corruption and for amassing assets disproportionate to his known source of income.

According to the PIL filed by former journalist Ketan Tirodkar, Nitesh, along with his brother Nilesh, had formed a company- PRS Enterprises.

"Pallonji Shapoorji's real estate company had paid a sum of Rs 258.88 crore to PRS Enterprises. The Income Tax Department had initiated inquiry into the transaction in December 2010 and had concluded that both the parties have failed to substantiate reasons behind payment of such huge sum of money," the petition alleges.

It further claims that the Thakur brothers were engaged in disbursing bribe to government officials on behalf of Pallonji for facilitating permission for real estate projects.

Tirodkar, in his petition, has sought court to direct IT, Enforcement Directorate (ED) and CBI to conduct a joint probe into the transactions between the two companies.

A division bench of Justices S A Bobade and Mridula Bhatkar had on the last hearing directed the petitioner to add Pallonji as a respondent to the PIL.

Tirodkar today filed an application seeking to include Pallonji's name, following which, the court issued notice to Pallonji seeking his reply to the application. The reply will have to be filed on May 4.

Tirodkar today also submitted an additional affidavit along with a remand note of ACB which states that it was investigating into the financial transaction between Thakur's company and Pallonji's company.

"The Enforcement Directorate is also looking into commission of money laundering. There is no legal documentation of the transaction and it seems to be illegal gratification," the remand note states.