Patna, March 24, 2009 (IANS)

A lawyer in Bihar has gone to court against Tata group chairman Ratan Tata for launching the Nano car ahead of the elections, alleging that the launch would "help" Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi who provided land to the Tatas after the car project was shifted out of West Bengal.

Shruti Singh, a lawyer of the Patna High Court, filed a case against Tata in the Chief Judicial Magistrate's court here Monday as, according to her, the launch could influence poll results and therefore was tantamount to violating the model code of conduct during elections. She has sought an injunction against the commercial launch of the Nano.

"I filed the case against Ratan Tata to expose his attempt to help Modi in the elections by commercially launching Nano to send (the) message that it was possible thanks to Modi," Singh told IANS.

She alleged that the launch of the Nano, the world's cheapest car with a base price of Rs.100,000 ($2,000), was timed in such a way that it could influence the elections.

The Nano was launched in Mumbai Monday, around five months after the group had to shift its factory out of Singur in West Bengal following protests by some farmers over the acquisition of their land for the project.

The first set of cars is being manufactured at Pantnagar in Uttarakhand and Pune in Maharashtra.

Tata Monday said that Nano was being commercially launched some nine months ahead of the commissioning of its new project site at Sanand in Gujarat, some 45 km from the state's commercial capital Ahmedabad.