It may be recalled that Air India flight IX812 arriving in Mangaluru from Dubai crashed on landing at the Mangaluru International Airport after overshooting the runway on May 22, 2010. Many reasons were attributed to the crash, the most recent of which is irregularities in the pilot recruitment procedure of Air India. Shreyas H S, staff correspondent at News Karnataka.com has filed a special report on this new development in this crash saga, that claimed 158 lives…
Mangaluru: The affidavit filed on Feb 18, 2015 by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) through Shashi Kumar Nair, Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP), CBI, Anti Corruption Branch, Mumbai in the High Court of Bombay in response to a notice issued by the court in a Public Interest Litigation said the “CBI has decided to file preliminary enquiry against the Air India (AI)”. The PIL (No 18/2014) was filed on Nov 20, 2015 and subsequently registered Feb 2, 2014.
The complaint against AI was filed with the CBI director, by Yeshwanth Shenoy, President of 812 Foundation seeking investigation into the alleged dubious employment contract between the AI and the pilot in command of the ill fated flight. The complaint of Shenoy also sought to conduct a detailed inquiry into methodology applied by AI to recruit pilots for its national and international services. The petition alleged that they were hired on contracts that violated section 21 of the Labour Contract (Regulation & Abolition) Act, 1970 (CLRA) causing a massive loss to the exchequer.
Apathy of CBI
The CBI, claimed Yeshwanth Shenoy while speaking to this reporter, failed to consider his complaint seriously, though an officer named Mr. Giri of the Anti Corruption Branch of Mumbai met Y Shenoy in person. “Owing to the inaction exhibited by the CBI, I filed a PIL on irregularities persisting in the contract agreement between Air India and various employee providing agencies” The petitioner Shenoy filed this PIL making the Union Government and CBI Director as respondents on
Responding to a query on the status of the complaint of Yeshwant Shenoy, ASP Shashi Kumar Nair, told Newskarnataka.com that a preliminary enquiry (PE) was filed recently by the CBI Delhi, though he could not remember the exact date of the registration of the PE..
The CBI assurance that it has decided to file a PE, came after the HC issued notice to them after admitting the PIL of Yeshwant Shenoy. Shenoy said, “the CBI has become serious about this issue only after the Bombay HC took cognizance of the PIL”
Irregularities in contract
Shenoy pointed out glaring inconsistencies in the contract between Air India and the Agency employing the pilot of Flight 812 Captain Zlatko Glusia hailing from Belgrade, Serbia. He told Newskarnataka.com that the pilot had a contract, with a foreign agency for a monthly wage of USD 9170. However, surprisingly, as per the contract details produced by the Air India Charter Limited (AICL) in the labour court (in a case that dealt with AI paying compensation to the pilot) in the course of the proceedings, the CFO of AICL told the court that 11,000 USD was paid for the services of the pilot to the agency.
Shenoy said that it can be inferred that AI was not paying the pilot directly, but through the agency, which in turn was retaining around 17% as its commission. Since the Air India appoints all expat pilots through a contractor under CLRA 1970, deductions if any must be in consonance with the CLRA, and any other deduction is violative of the section 21 of the Act. In addition, he alleged that some of these agencies are were run by AI insiders and have been extended undue favour after violating norms.
Huge loss of public fund
Interestingly, the AI, in response to an RTI query, initiated by Shenoy, while declining to reveal specific details, regarding the contract, did reveal the name of the contractor. Astonishtly it was different from the one it told the labour court!
Shenoy said that one of the RTI replies shows that for the financial period of 2004-2013, AI and its subsidiaries spent 75 million USD on expat pilots. All this expenditure was incurred through agencies who employed the pilots. “Even at an average rate of 1USD = 40INR, the amount would be equal to Rupees 300 crore. Twenty percent of this amount would be about 60 crore,” he wrote in the PIL
He further writes “even if it was assumed that no employee of AI has received payments from the contractors, AI still would be liable to pay the pilots under section 21 of the CLRA.” Alongside he held officials of the AI responsible for massive loss of public money caused by deducting 20% of money from the salary.
Shenoy also brought this to the notice of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in the Isle of Man requesting to investigate foreign agencies specifically on whether these agencies bribed AI officials. The SFO pointed irregularities but did not further take the investigation further as were no official requests from the Government of India. There was no reply from Prime Minister and Civil Aviation Ministry for his letters on misuse of public funds by the AI. The apathy of the Government of India that controls AI and CBI persuaded Shenoy to register the PIL in the HC of Bombay requesting a court monitored investigation by the CBI.
