Cyrus Mistry was never with SD Corp: Pallonnji Group

The city-based construction major Shapoorji Pallonji Company today denied that Cyrus Mistry, the chairman-designate of Tata Group, was a director of SD Corporation, as alleged in a PIL.

"Our attention has been drawn to reports in a section of media seeking to implicate Cyrus Mistry in a litigation filed by Ketan Tirodkar in the Bombay High Court against Maharashtra state concerning the redevelopment of Samata Nagar by SD Corporation at Kandivli in Mumbai.

"Cyrus Mistry has never been a director of SD Corporation, which is a joint venture between Shapoorji Pallonji Group and the Thacker group. As such he has never been concerned or involved with the affairs of SD Corporation," a company statement said here this evening.

All the business transactions that Shapoorji Pallonji and SD Corporation have entered into are fully compliant with the law, it said.

Shapoorji Pallonji Company will file appropriate reply in the court to clarify that Mistry is in no way concerned in the said petition, it said.

The HC yesterday issued a notice to Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry, Cyrus's father, on the PIL which alleges that the real estate company had given over Rs 250 crore to a firm owned by Nitesh Thakur, a former deputy collector.

Nitesh has been arrested by the state anti-corruption bureau on charges of corruption. According to the PIL, Nitesh and his brother Nilesh had formed a company called PRS Enterprises, to which Pallonji Shapoorji's real estate company paid Rs 258.88 crore.

The IT department inquiry had concluded that the parties failed to substantiate the reasons behind the payment, the PIL alleges, seeking a further probe.

It also says that Thakur brothers disbursed bribe to government officials on behalf of the Pallonji group for facilitating real estate projects.