“A Mumbai magistrate’s court on Tuesday admitted a Rs 500 crore criminal defamation suit, filed by R Venkataramanan, a trustee at Tata Trusts, against ousted Tata Sons Ltd chairman Cyrus Mistry and his family investment firms. Venkataramanan filed the defamation complaint in his personal capacity on 7 June through the law firm MZM Legal, citing allegations that Mistry made against him in an email he wrote to Tata Sons directors and Tata Trusts trustees on 25 October. The allegations pertained to some transactions at AirAsia India, Tata Sons’ joint venture with AirAsia Bhd,” reported Mint.

MZM Legal managing partner Zulfiquar Memon, Karanjawala & Co partner Sandeep Kapoor, principal associate Vir Inder Pal Singh and senior associate Karan Seth, and Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas partner Nitesh Jain acted for Venkataramanan.

Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Shri Krishna Paldewar order Mistry and six other directors to appear before him on 24 August to seek bail.

Since Paldewar’s order was a pre-summoning order, the counsel for Mistry and the other defendants are yet to appear.