Tata Steel expands committee to probe Charudatta Deshpande’s death
Tata Steel has inducted O.P. Bhatt, an independent director of the company, into the panel it set up on 2 July
Mumbai: Tata Steel Ltd. said on Monday that it had expanded the committee to ascertain facts relating to the death of Charudatta Deshpande, who headed the communications and corporate affairs department at the steel maker until he quit in April.
Tata Steel said it had inducted O.P. Bhatt, an independent director of the company, into the panel it set up on 2 July.
On 28 June, the 57-year-old Deshpande was found dead at his Vasai house in suburban Mumbai.
On 2 July, the company set up a committee headed by Ishaat Hussain, non-executive director of Tata Steel, with the mandate to submit its findings to the board of Tata Steel within two months.The committee includes chief ethics officer of the Tata group Mukund Rajan, chief human resources officer N.S. Rajan and the group’s general counsel, Bharat Vasani.
The committee was set up following emails from a group of nine journalists and communications executives to Tata group chairman Cyrus Mistry and chairman emeritus of Tata group Ratan Tata, requesting an “urgent and immediate enquiry" into the death of Deshpande, who was a journalist-turned-communications executive.
Deshpande resigned from Tata Steel after Forbes published an article in its 15 April issue highlighting the problems faced by the steel-maker. The mail sent to Mistry and Ratan Tata alleged that Deshpande had been subjected to harassment after the publication of the article. Deshpande told friends that he was being blamed by Tata Steel officials for leaking confidential company documents and that he was put under two-week house arrest in Jamshedpur, the letter said.
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