Aviva India CEO summoned by police in religious discrimination case | Latest news from India

Arpan Chaturvedi and Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI. Indian police have asked Asit Rath, the country’s chief executive of British insurer Aviva, to join an investigation into allegations of religious discrimination in the workplace by a former employee, according to documents seen by Reuters.

The probe in the northern Punjab city of Faridkot is the latest headache for the company, which is under scrutiny from tax authorities who accuse it of making illegal payments to insurance brokers, charges it denies.

In a subpoena on Saturday seen by Reuters, Rath and another Aviva official were asked to appear before police in Punjab as part of the investigation, advising: “This should be considered very important.” It was not immediately clear whether the executives had done so.

In a statement to Reuters, Aviva dismissed the discrimination allegations as “factually false”.

The case stems from a Sept. 14 police complaint by former employee Gurbir Singh, a Sikh man, who accused company executives of discriminating against him and making derogatory comments about him because of his religion, police records show.

Rath did not respond to requests for comment, while Singh, the complainant, said he had appeared before police during the investigation but could not comment further while the investigation was ongoing.

The office of the Senior Superintendent of Police in Faridkot, which is handling the investigation, did not respond to a request for comment.

A spokesperson for UK-based Aviva said Aviva India “strongly denies any discrimination as alleged and has a strong policy to ensure that all employees are treated fairly”.

The spokesperson added: “Aviva India considers the alleged complaint lodged by a former employee to be factually incorrect, without any basis and is currently subject to legal proceedings, so we will not be commenting further.”

Details of the registration show that the case was filed under provisions of the law that criminalize insulting any religion with malicious intent, punishable by up to three years in prison.

Aviva India is a joint venture between Aviva Global and Dabur Invest Corp., a well-known domestic company.

Aviva owns 74% of the business after increasing its stake from 49% in 2022. It faces stiff competition from state-owned LIC, which controls about two-thirds of the market.

This article was generated from an automated feed of news agencies without changes to the text.