Days after ousted Tata Sons Chairman Cyrus Mistry claimed that a probe unearthed fradulent deals worth ₹22 crore at AirAsia (India), the airline said it is carrying out an investigation for alleged fraud.

In a statement, the Bengaluru-based airline said there is an ongoing investigation against certain former personnel involving irregular personal expense claims and certain company charges. The statement pointed out that this was already reported and discussed at the previous board meeting of AirAsia (India) Ltd.

In an email to the Tata Sons’ board last week, Mistry said the (Tata Sons) board members and (Tata Trust) trustees were aware that in the case of AirAsia, ethical concerns have been raised with respect to certain transactions as well as the overall prevailing culture within the organisation.

“A recent forensic investigation revealed fraudulent transactions of ₹22 crore involving non-existent parties in India and Singapore. Executive Trustee, Mr Venkatraman (sic), who is on the board of Air Asia and also a shareholder in the company, considered these transactions as non-material and did not encourage further study. It was only at the insistence of the independent directors, one of whom immediately submitted his resignation, that the board decided to belatedly file a first information report,” the email said.

The airline began operations in 2013. Its first CEO, Mittu Chandilya, left the organisation early this year, with sources claiming that he had a fallout with the board.

The statement from AirAsia (India) said it will not make any specific reference to the matters investigated at this stage as it may be prejudicial to AirAsia (India) or the personnel investigated. The statement also did not say whether the investigation was being carried out against one or more former employees.

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