Nearly eight months after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Praful Patel, along with Ajit Pawar and other party leaders, joined the BJP-led NDA, the CBI has filed a closure report in the Air India (AI)-Indian Airlines (IA) merger case that involved him.
Patel, in his capacity as Union Civil Aviation Minister during the merger, was among the key suspects in the case and had been questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED), Indian Express reported.
The probe agency registered the case in May 2017 following a Supreme Court order.
In May 2019, ED had told a special court that “Mr Praful Patel is a dear friend” of middleman Deepak Talwar who allegedly facilitated the dispersal of profit-making Air India routes to private airlines during 2008-09 using his “proximity to the minister and aviation personnel in India”.
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The case pertains to the AI-IA merger to form National Aviation Corporation of India Ltd (NACIL) which leased a high number of aircraft and purchased 111 aircraft from Airbus and Boeing apart from allegations linked to the ceding of profitable routes to foreign airlines, corruption in the opening of training institutes with foreign investment, and Patel’s alleged ties with lobbyist Deepak Talwar who was deported from Dubai in January 2019 and arrested by ED.
To probe these issues, the CBI had registered four FIRs in the matter in May 2017 following a Supreme Court order in January of that year. The closure report has been filed in the first FIR registered. The probe in other cases will continue, the Indian Express reported.
In the first FIR registered in the matter on May 29, 2017, the CBI mentioned “unknown officials of Ministry of Civil Aviation” in the accused column and mentioned Patel’s name in the FIR.
Patel had denied the allegations saying that all decisions in the matter were “collective”.
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The CBI filed the report before a designated special court on March 19, which is expected to take up the matter on April 15. About a month ago, the NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) announced that it was nominating Patel as its candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls.
In June last year, Praful Patel had attended an Opposition bloc meeting in Bihar’s Patna along with NCP supremo Sharad Pawar. However, the very next month he walked out of the party with Ajit Pawar and six other leaders of the party, including Chhagan Bhujbal, and joined the NDA. The Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP is now part of the Eknath Shinde government in Maharashtra with Ajit Pawar as Deputy CM.
