Centre has ordered immediate suspension and initiation of major penalty proceedings against six officials of Airports Authority of India, AAI. The Civil Aviation minister Ajit Singh today ordered the penalties for committing irregularties in awarding contracts to a company.

A CBI inquiry found the officers involved in favouring M/s Bhadra International India Ltd by giving it contracts for ground handling services at Chennai,Kolkata and other airports. The officers are Executive Director commercial L L Krishnan, DGM Finance R L Saran, Additional GM Commercial S Basu, DGM operations Arun Mehan, DGM operations P K Chadha and GM Ravi Verma.

The minister has also ordered filing of FIR against Managing Director of the company Prem Bajaj, Retired ED Commercial R. V. Narayanan, Retired ED Finance A. K. Dubey of AAI and others for their acts of manipulation, forgery, criminal breach of trust, criminal conspiracy and corruption under Indian Penal Code, IPC, and Prevention of Corruption Act.

It has also been decided that action be taken against the company for cancellation of award or contract and recovery of dues. Mr Singh has directed the AAI to take corrective measures to prevent participation of defaulter contracter or parties in future tender processes by incorporating suitable coopertaions in the rules and regulations. The minister has asked for the compliance report by the end of this month.

The CBI has also found grave and serious irregularties in awarding contract for ground handling services in Trivandrum, Coimbatore, Calicut, Mangalore and Tiruchi.