Ousted Tata Sons Chairman Cyrus Mistry’s allegations of fraudulent transactions worth ₹22 crore in AirAsia have caught the Enforcement Directorate’s eye.

According to top officials at the Directorate, summons have been issued to the company under the Foreign Exchange Management Act.

Mistry, in a letter to the board of Tata Sons, had highlighted a recent forensic investigation that “revealed fraudulent transactions of ₹22 crore involving non-existent parties in India and Singapore” related to AirAsia India.

Mistry had also said that a First Information Report was filed by the Tata Sons board only at the insistence of the independent directors.

After the allegations, Air Asia last month announced that an internal probe was underway “against certain former personnel of AirAsia (India) Ltd involving irregular personal expense claims.”

Cloud over payments

The forensic audit carried out by Deloitte is understood to have raised questions over payments of ₹12.28 crore by AirAsia to one HNR Trading, a Singapore-based entity. The audit revealed there was no contract between the airline and HNR Trading. Further, there was no evidence of actual services. The ED summons is understood to be related to this transaction.

Additionally, a payment of about ₹10 crore was allegedly made to an entity called Link Media Immigration Services Private Ltd for media services.

Deloitte, in its audit report, is understood to have found no such company registered with the Corporate Affairs Ministry. Site visits revealed no such establishment.

Asked about the ED summons, an Air Asia spokesperson said the company had not yet received any notice.

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