NEW DELHI: The CBI has booked Venkata Krishna Reddy Gunupati, the chairman of the GVK Group of Companies and his son G V Sanjay Reddy, Managing Director of Mumbai International Airport Ltd for allegedly siphoning off funds meant for the development of Mumbai airport.
It is understood that the Airport Authority of India Ltd had formed a Joint venture with GVK Airports Holdings Limited, promoted by GVK group under public private partnership firm Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) for upgradation and maintenance of Mumbai Airport.
According to the FIR, the GVK group through their joint venture company, siphoned off money to the tune of Rs 705 crore that was meant for the Mumbai airport development project.
The FIR has mentioned the names of 14 individuals and entities including GVK Airport Holding Ltd, MIAL, GVK group chairman GVK Reddy, his son and some officials of the Airport Authority.
The accused have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for cheating, criminal conspiracy and forgery and those of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The FIR states that the funds were siphoned off by using bogus work contracts, misusing surplus funds of MIAL, inflating the company's expenses, and under-reporting revenue.
According to the FIR, the accused floated bogus companies to which contracts were awarded by MIAL in 2017.
“MIAL entered into fake contracts with nine companies on the pretext of real estate development causing a loss of Rs 310 crores to the exchequer. These companies also availed bogus Input Tax Credit (ITC) by raising fake invoices,” the FIR states.
These companies were - Aishwaryagiri Construction Pvt Ltd, Kotia Enterprises Ltd, SBK Trade & Infrastructure, Subhash Infra, Aqua Tech Solutions, MV Omni Projects, Richa Industries, Nice Projects and Aditi Infrabuild for real estate development, the agency said.
The FIR also states that GVK group misused funds by creating FDRs in Hyderabad based branches of other nationalised banks and availed loans/ OD facilities and used these funds for the benefit of the GVK group companies at the expense of JVC MIAL causing wrongful loss to AAI.
From 2012, GVK Group allegedly misused reserve funds of MIAL to the tune of Rs 395 crore to finance their group companies, according to the FIR.
An FIR was registered against the company on June 27 after a search was conducted by the CBI in six locations in Mumbai and Hyderabad, including offices of GVK group and MIAL and residences of GVK Reddy and that Sanjay Reddy, the managing director of MIAL.