Never paid any bribe or gratification to anyone: Tata

Aug 03, 2011 |

mumbai

Tags:

Tata group chairman Ratan Tata on Wednesday rejected allegations of giving bribe to former telecom minister A. Raja to secure 2G spectrum allocation and said charges being made in the court proceedings were an attempt at diversion.

Facing questions from a shareholder at the AGM of Tata Steel company, he said unfortunately there are defamation laws in the country and one can say anything in court and get away with it.

“Not even one paisa was paid to Mr A. Raja. The money was for the hospital and medical equipment meant for people. Since no hospital was built and no equipment was purchased, no money was paid.

“We do not make payments in advance. The statements made in courts are to create a diversion,” Tata said while replying to a question on reports that the company had paid Rs 20 crores to a hospital in Raja’s constituency.

On Tuesday, jailed Swan Telecom’s promoter Shahid Usman Balwa had said that Tatas gave donation to the tune of Rs 20 crores to a hospital in Tamil Nadu.

“We have not paid Rs 20 crores to A. Raja. It’s being said in the court for other reasons of diversion,” Tata told the shareholders at the 104th AGM of Tata Steel.

“Lots of things we have not said in public because we have given all the information to the agencies. Besides, the matter is sub-judice and we may risk contempt of court, if we see anything more,” he said, adding, “We have never been asked or given any sort of bribe or gratification to A. Raja or anybody else.”

“I am sure, when the dust settles, things will become clearer. Unfortunately, there are no defamation laws in this country. But in a court they can make any statement they like,” Tata said.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/88446" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-db93338ab8aa9070a7a630fe4201467c" value="form-db93338ab8aa9070a7a630fe4201467c" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="80547552" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>