New Delhi: A year after registering a case for alleged irregularities in the Rs. 8,399-crore deal struck by the erstwhile Indian Airlines with Airbus Industrie for supply of 43 passenger planes, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has decided to send a team to the U.K. to record the statement of a top executive of the European consortium.
“Investigations conducted so far have thrown up some questions on the basis of which we will seek clarifications from Airbus executive vice-president Kiran Rao,” said a senior CBI official here on Thursday. The move indicates that the investigation is being speeded up. The deal was finalised during the UPA-I regime when NCP leader Praful Patel was the Civil Aviation Minister.
The deal came under the CBI scanner, and the agency registered a case in March 2013 against seven senior functionaries of Indian Airlines, which was later merged with Air India, and Airbus.
The CBI had about three years ago instituted a preliminary inquiry into the delay in fulfilment of certain conditions of the contract requiring Airbus to assist in the setting up of a maintenance, repair and overhaul unit, a warehouse and a training centre at a total cost of $175 million. Airbus then denied charges of any irregularity.
06/06/14 Devesh K. Pandey/The Hindu
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“Investigations conducted so far have thrown up some questions on the basis of which we will seek clarifications from Airbus executive vice-president Kiran Rao,” said a senior CBI official here on Thursday. The move indicates that the investigation is being speeded up. The deal was finalised during the UPA-I regime when NCP leader Praful Patel was the Civil Aviation Minister.
The deal came under the CBI scanner, and the agency registered a case in March 2013 against seven senior functionaries of Indian Airlines, which was later merged with Air India, and Airbus.
The CBI had about three years ago instituted a preliminary inquiry into the delay in fulfilment of certain conditions of the contract requiring Airbus to assist in the setting up of a maintenance, repair and overhaul unit, a warehouse and a training centre at a total cost of $175 million. Airbus then denied charges of any irregularity.
06/06/14 Devesh K. Pandey/The Hindu
