NEW DELHI: Lawyer Prashant Bhushan on Wednesday approached the CBI seeking registration of FIR against former Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and former Chairperson of Air India V Thulasidas and other officials.
Citing the judgment of Canadian Superior Court and a book written by Former Executive Director of Air India, Bhushan has sought registration of the FIR with a thorough probe and prosecution. The case involves a scam, in which a proposal was mooted by Air India in 2006 for installing a biometric passenger identification system at selected domestic and international airports.
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice had convicted Nasir Karigar, a Canada-based businessman, on August 15, 2013, for having offered to bribe Patel and Thulasidas to secure the contract for supplying a biometric passenger identification system to the Air India. The court sentenced Karigar to three years in prison on May 23, 2014. “Despite this, no action has been taken against any Indian public official by the authorities in India,” Bhushan wrote in the letter to the CBI.
Terming the case an “open and shut one of high-level corruption involving the former Civil Aviation Minister, former chairperson of Air India and others”, Bhushan also referred to the “remarkable book” by former Executive Director of Air India Jitender Bhargava.