THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Swapna Suresh is facing a Crime Branch probe for framing an Air India official in a sexual harassment case. L S Sibu, working in Apron, ground service department, Air India, in Hyderabad, told TNIE that he had to suffer a lot on account of Swapna’s fraudulent activity. He also had to stay away from work for nearly two years to prove his innocence as he had exposed many financial irregularities in Air India SATS, a joint venture of Air India and Singapore Airport Terminal Services.
Swapna was an HR professional and secretary to the vice-president of Air India SATS from 2013 to 2015. According to Sibu, ever since he tried to expose a murky deal, Swapna was used by then SATS authorities to target him. In March 2015, Swapna made a false complaint after forging the signatures of 17 female staffers against Sibu, accusing him of sexual harassment at workplace. Incidentally, she had resigned from SATS and joined the UAE consulate to evade police interrogation.
The forgery committed by her was unearthed by the Crime Branch which found that the complaint lodged by Air India SATS Airport Services Private Limited (AISATS) association was meant to wreak revenge on Sibu. He had invited the association’s wrath for complaining before the CBI and the Central Vigilance Commission about the irregularities involved in Air India awarding a ground handling contract to AISATS in violation of existing guidelines.
The Crime Branch had also recommended to the state police that a case be registered to find out the identity of those who made up the complaint in the name of 17 female staffers. According to Sibu, the 17 female staffers were unaware of the complaint and Swapna had been guilty of abuse of office. “Swapna was a tool used by some officials to sideline and tarnish me. She wielded enormous influence. So the police initially tried to hush up the case.
But the High Court intervened and directed the police to resume the probe. Following the court’s order, the Crime Branch was entrusted with the probe into the case and a new investigating officer was put in charge. Earlier this year, Swapna was interrogated in my presence and she even owned up to the fact that she had forged the complaint against me.
However, the probe team was unaware that she was a staff of the IT department,” Sibu said. At the time of the alleged incident, Sibu had been posted at the airport and Swapna was at the Air India SATS office at Vellayambalam. Sibu said that the 17 female staffers, whose signatures had been forged, should now come forward and file a fresh case against Swapna for illegally giving their names as signatories in the false complaint.