CBI Case Against GVK Group, Airports Authority Over Mumbai Airport Scam

The Mumbai Airport scam involves allegedly irregularities to the tune of Rs 805 crore

Mumbai:

A case has been registered against G Venkata Krishna Reddy, the chairman of the GVK Group of Companies and the Mumbai International Airport Ltd for alleged irregularities to the tune of Rs 805 crore, sources told NDTV. The case, filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation, also names officials of the Airport Authority of India and nine other private companies.

All have been accused of “causing wrongful gain of over 805 crore to themselves and causing a loss to the public exchequer between 2012-2018,” reads the First Information Report.

According to the FIR, a Joint Venture company named Mumbai International Airport Ltd or MIAL was formed by GVK Airport Holdings Ltd, Airport Authority India and few other foreign entities. The GVK owned 50.5 per cent of the shares and 26 per cent was with AAI.

GVK Reddy is the chairman of MIAL and GV Sanjay Reddy, who has also been named in the FIR, is the Managing Director of MIAL.

The agreement signed between AAI and MIAL in 2006 stipulates that MIAL shall run the Mumbai airport and they will have to share 38.7 per cent of their revenue with the AAI as annual fees.

The rest will be used for the modernization, operation and maintenance of the airport.

In its FIR, the premier investigating agency alleged that the accused had siphoned off Rs 310 crore by showing execution of bogus work contracts with nine other private companies. Most of this was said to be real estate development in the 200-acre undeveloped land parcel around the Mumbai airport between 2017-18, the agency contended.

The agency also alleged that “the promoters of the GVK Group of Companies with criminal intention to cause loss to AAI, used the surplus funds of MIAL to the tune of 395 crore to finance their other group companies between 2012 and 2018”.

“The promoters of the GVK Group of Companies in MIAL have embezzled more than 100 crore of the joint venture company by resorting to inflating the expenditure of MIAL,” the FIR read.

“The wrongful gain to the accused, mainly the promoters of GVK Group of Companies works out to be around Rs 805 crore as per the complaint. But investigation has revealed that these accused have also under-reported the revenue of MIAL during the same period. If added, the total loss to the public exchequer will be more than Rs 1,000 crore,” sources in the CBI told NDTV.