Cyrus Mistry, the 54-year-old former chairman of Indian conglomerate Tata Sons, died in a road accident near financial capital Mumbai on Sunday, Indian police said.

Mistry was ousted as chairman of Tata Sons, the holding company of the US$300-billion salt-to-software Tata conglomerate, in a boardroom coup in 2016, sparking a long-drawn-out legal tussle on which India's top court eventually ruled in Tata Group's favour.

The accident took place in Palghar, located about 100 kilometres from Mumbai, on Sunday afternoon. Mistry was travelling to Mumbai from Gujarat with three others, B. Patil, the top police official in Palghar district, said.

A senior Mumbai police official said the car in which Mistry was travelling had rammed into a divider, and that he had died at the accident site.

Mistry's family and Tata Sons did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

Several prominent politicians and industrialists tweeted their condolences after news of Mistry's passing was reported.

"Deeply saddened to know about the unfortunate demise of Ex-Chairman of Tata Sons, Cyrus Mistry Ji in a road accident near Palghar, Maharashtra," Nitin Gadkari, India's road transport minister, said in a Twitter post. (Reuters)