KOCHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered case into the corruption incident involving officials in Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd (PHHL) for the helicopter service provided at Lakshwadeep.
CBI has arraigned five officials of PHHL including its General Manager of PHHL in the case According to CBI officials, the FIR of the case was registered at Kavaratti Principal Sessions Court a few weeks ago. The accused in the case are S K Das, General Manager, PHHL, Mumbai Region; C M Somanathan, Deputy General Manager, Finance, Mumbai; H N Ghad, Deputy General Manager, Personal and Administration, Mumbai; Sheherban Muhammad, Base Assistant, Lakshadweep; V A Alexander, PHHL Officer at Cochin International Airport Limited and unknown persons.
It is the team under P A Abdul Asiz, Inspector of CBI conducting investigation into the incident. The case has been registered under various section Prevention of Corruption Act. CBI officials said that case was registered after report handed over of by chief vigilance officer of PHHL to CBI. The case is over the corruption in operating the two PHHL choppers for various emergency cases in various islands of Lakshwadeep from 2008 to 2013. As per the initial investigation, a fund of Rs 1.30 crores was diverted using vouchers and travel bills submitted by the accused at the headquarter of PHHL.
The fund for the helicopters service are provided by Lakshadweep Administration. The details of the helicopter service was exaggerated and bill in this regard was filed at the headquarter of PHHL. Similarly, corruption also have been taken place in encashing the cheques given to Airport Authority of India(AAI) as rent for helicopter space at the airport in Lakshwadeep.
"We conducted raid at the residences of the accused in Kerala and Mumbai. Some of the them were also interrogated. Further interrogation would continue. The helicopters are operated by PHHL mainly for airlifting the patients,"CBI official said. CBI also suspect the involvement of officials in Lakshwadeep Administration and officials of a nationalised bank in the case.
"The verifying the evidences over the involvement of more persons into the case. In the later stages, those persons would be arraigned as accused,"CBI official said.