NEW DELHI, 10 June — The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has started a formal inquiry against Micheal Mascarenhas, suspended managing director of state-owned Air-India at the request of the Civil Aviation Ministry. “We filed a preliminary investigation against Mascarenhas on the request of the Civil Aviation Ministry,” CBI spokesman S.M. Khan said.
He said the bureau would be investigating whether a criminal case could be made out against him. “We will investigate his alleged links with a London-based general sales manager. Mascarenhas used to pay him huge money for bringing in more business,” he said. He said the CBI would be probing a criminal nexus between the two. “After probing Mascarenhas’ role, we will decide whether to start a full-fledged investigation,” Khan said.
Mascarenhas was suspended from his post on May 23 on charges of showing undue favors to Welcome Travels, the airline’s general sales agent (GSA), in UK, resulting in a loss of crores of rupees to the national carrier in the midst of a severe resource crunch.
Mascarenhas was already in the eye of a storm over non-compliance of government orders appointing V.K. Verma as the airline’s commercial director. The alleged bungling of Mascarenhas came to light in a report by the comptroller and auditor general (CAG), which pointed out various acts of “omission and commission,” by Welcome Travels, during the scrutiny of Air-India’s London records.
