Rashmi Saluja, Chairperson of Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) Religare Enterprises Ltd (REL) was deboarded from an Air India flight from Delhi to London on Tuesday, March 5, following a fight with crew members, as revealed by airline sources. Saluja allegedly had a verbal altercation and behaved impolitely and discourteously with the crew.
The airline offloaded Saluja after she argued with two business class crew members over her dissatisfaction with services on the London-bound AI 161 flight, according to a report in the New Indian. This resulted in a delay of one hour in the departure of the flight.
Saluja later requested that the Tata-owned airline allow her to fly on the next flight to London.
"Following the offboarding, flight AI 161 departed after a delay of about an hour. The passenger who was offboarded was travelling for some compelling reasons and was accommodated on a subsequent flight following a written assurance," the Air India spokesperson said, as reported by PTI.
The Burman family, promoters of FMCG company Dabur India, raised red flags over the allocation of an estimated 2.14 crore shares, constituting 8% of Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL), to Saluja through employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs). The Burman family has gradually been raising stakes in Religare Enterprises over the last five years. A 9.9% stake in April 2018 increased to 14% in June 2021, with another 7.5% and 5.27% equity acquired in September 2023, which triggered an open offer for the company. The Burman family acquired nearly another 4% stock in Religare on January 31, taking its share in the company to more than 30%.
The Burman family spokesperson contended that this allocation warrants investigation to ascertain compliance with SEBI Takeover Regulations, casting a shadow on governance practices within Religare Enterprises.
The company revealed in November 2023 that Saluja’s remuneration, including salary and employee stock options (ESOP), was ₹42.06 crore for the financial year ending March 2023.
(Edited by : Ajay Vaishnav)
