The case has been registered by the anti-corruption bureau of CBI under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The accused include AISATS, the company’s Vice President, Binoy Jacob, and Finance Manager, P K Anandan, under suspicion of evasion of royalty charges payable to the Airport Authority of India by underreporting its annual earnings.
The CBI has been monitoring activities at Thiruvananthapuram airport very closely for the past six months. During a visit last week by CBI officials to the airport, statements were taken from Air India officials suspected of assisting in the underreporting of handling charges. Additionally, all airlines have been urged to submit the payment details of ground handling charges paid to the agency before April 11, as the CBI believes that AISATS may have been underreporting payments since as far back as 2012.
The role of Airport Authority of India officials in the evasion of royalty charges is also suspected.
The investigation, however, is still very much in the initial stages and there is no complete data or information to support the case. Consequently, neither AISATS nor the CBI can communicate a conclusion on the issue.
When asked, a spokesperson on behalf of AISATS gave GHI the following statement in response to the ongoing investigation.
“We wish to clarify that AISATS is absolutely complying with its contractual obligations with AAI and paying the ground handling royalty charges as per the agreement.
“AISATS is a professionally managed company and strictly adheres to the rules and regulations of the relevant authorities. We have, and will continue to extend our full co-operation to these concerned authorities.”
