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CBI allegedly misused the reserve funds of Mumbai International Airport Ltd. of about Rs. 705 crore in various illegal activities. Airport Authority of India and Mumbai International Private Ltd went into a joint agreement with GVK Airport Holding Ltd. for up gradation of Mumbai airport.

The CBI has booked Venkata Krishna Reddy Gunupati, a director in MIAL, his son GV Sanjay Reddy, managing director in Mumbai International Airport Ltd., GVK Airport Holdings Limited and nine other private companies allegedly in the irregularities to the tone of Rs. 705 crore in running the airport. One AAI official was also involved in this deal.

Both AAI official and GVK groups were involved in this sham deal for Mumbai International Airport Ltd.

In April 2006, Airport Authority of India and Mumbai International Airports Ltd. went into an agreement with GVK Airport Holding Private Ltd. This agreement was made for the modernization, upkeep, operation and maintenance of Mumbai Airport with MIAL. This agreement was made under public-private partnership firm Mumbai International Airport Ltd.

This agreement went through on April 4th 2006 for the upgradation of Mumbai airport.

But now as it turns out the Rs. 705 crore were siphoned from the funds of MIAL. These funds were siphoned by showing inflated expenditure, under reporting of revenues and fudging of records among various other illegal activities.

The Central Bureau of Investigation or the CBI has booked the people involved in this sham and alleged the GVK group and MIAL for coercing of funds.

The CBI also alleged that the promoters of GVK group allegedly misused the reserve funds of MIAL to the tune of Rs.395 crore to finance their own group companies.

The agency also mentioned that the group inflated the expenditure figures of MIAL by showing payments to the employees at their headquarters and group companies who were not involved in the running of MIAL which caused a revenue loss to AAI.

According to these allegations, the promoters under reported revenue earnings of MIAL by entering into contracts with related parties and meeting their personal and family expenses using the MIAL funds. .

In the registered complaint, the inflated expenditure funds are pegged at Rs.100 crore. Not just the expenditure CBI has also alleged that Rs. 310 crores were siphoned showing execution of bogus work contracts to nine companies in 2017-18. And the GVK group promoters are also alleged of financing their own companies and siphoning Rs. 395 crore for the reserve fund for MIAL.

All of these allegations take the total to Rs 805 crore, but the CBI has not included the 100 crore of inflated expenditure funds in the FIR.

Officials have also said that the figures of the alleged scam may increase during the further investigation.

The CBI operation was conducted on Wednesday and continued till late in the evening.

The CBI has carried out searches at the offices of the GVK group in Mumbai and Hyderabad after registering a case against its chairman, Venkata Krishna Reddy Gunupati, in connection with alleged irregularities to the tune of Rs 705 crore in the running of the Mumbai airport.

By Deepika Agarwal