Airline official conspired to kill colleague: witnesses

Thiruvananthapuram: A senior Air India official tried to kill his colleague for trying to expose corrupt deals at the airport here, according to prosecution witnesses.
Air India’s airport security manager S S Batave suffered near fatal wounds when he was attacked with acid in front of his flat here on April 4.
On August 14, police arrested four people including the airline’s operations manager S Rajeshwaran, the alleged mastermind.
The witnesses, all employees of manpower supplier Universal Aviation, have given statements to Judicial First Class Magistrate I V Satheesh Kumar. The Universal Aviation was contracted by the airline for handling baggage operations inside the airport for two years.
The other defendants in the case are the company’s assistant manager Asok Kumar, 29; Santosh, 30, a suspect in several criminal cases, and Shojan, 30, an auto-rickshaw driver.
Rajeshwaran and Asok Kumar allegedly hired Santosh and Shojan to kill Batave, an upright officer who reprimanded Asok for coming to the airport on his day off and fired his brother Alin Kumar, a baggage handler with the UA, for using a fake pass to enter the airport.
The UA promoted Asok as assistant manager so that he would be entitled to get a pass to enter the airport anytime. But Batave denied him the pass saying the airline’s contract with the UA would end in December 2008 and that the applicant’s behavior was suspicious.
Batave expelled one of the baggage handlers for demanding money from a passenger and sought police verification of employees recruited by UA. Rajeswaran turned his foe when Batave wrote several letters to his superiors accusing the operations manager of corruption.
08/09/09 Ashraf Padanna/Gulf Times

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Categories: Airports Sep 2008, NACIL Sep 2008