The Central Bureau of India (CBI) has registered a case against AirAsia India chief Tony Fernandes for allegedly flouting aviation norms for getting international flying licences, a CBI official said on Tuesday.
The official, who did not want to be identified, added that the agency has also filed a case against five others—AirAsia India director R Venkataramanan, deputy group CEO Tharumalingam Kanagalingam, Travel Food Services chairman Sunil Kapoor, aviation consultant Deepak Talwar, and Rajendra Dubey, director of Singapore-based SNR Trading.
“Unknown officials from the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) officials entered into criminal conspiracy with Venkatramanan, Fernandes and others with intent to help expedite approval process and change in aviation policies to suit the company,” the CBI official alleged.
The CBI has named AirAsia India Ltd (AAIL), HNR Company, Singapore, and Berhard Air Asia Singapore, in its FIR.
“AirAsia India had used the services of several persons such as Talwar, Dubey, and others at the insistence of Tony Fernandes and Tharumalingam Kanagalingam, also known as B.O. Lingam, while lobbying with unknown officials of Ministry of Civil Aviation for AirAsia India to get favourable orders,” the official said.
He also alleged that “it has also been alleged that they were given money that was used to bribe unknown public servants to get permits for international operations”.
Talwar’s lawyer, Tanvir Ahmed Mir, told Fortune India that the CBI’s allegations are baseless. “One must remember that 80% of the cases filed by the CBI result in acquittal. I am not aware of the FIR.”
AirAsia has denied the allegations and said that it is cooperating with the regulators and agencies to clear the air. “In November 2016, AAIL had initiated criminal charges against its ex-CEO and had also commenced civil proceedings in Bangalore for such irregularities. We hope to bring early resolution to all such issues,” said Shuva Mandal director, AirAsia India
In its FIR, the CBI has alleged that the airline lobbied and violated the 5/20 rule to get international flying rights. The 5/20 norm mandated an airline have at least five years of domestic experience and 20 aircraft to get an international licence. In 2016, the government removed the five-year clause.
This isn’t the first time that Bengaluru-based AirAsia India, a joint venture between Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia and Tata Sons that started its India operations in 2014, has been under a cloud here. A document submitted by former Tata Group chief Cyrus Mistry at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), say “the nominee-director of R-1 (Tata Sons) to the Board of Directors of AirAsia India, Bharat Vasani, who was also the Tata Group General Counsel, sounded repeated warnings about the goings-on in AirAsia India, and these evidences the rampant and gross governance failures”.
It adds that Vasani, in an email to Mistry and other senior members of Tata Sons, noted that no due diligence was done on the joint venture partners of AirAsia India, and the deal was signed in a hurry. The document reveals that the group had been lackadaisical on regulatory compliance at AirAsia India and had detected several serious regulatory infractions.
The document quotes Mistry saying he had asked Vasani to voice his concerns to the AirAsia India board, and had apprised Venkatraman, the managing trustee of Tata Trusts, and Ramadorai, AirAsia India board chairman, about the issues.
“The group’s legal counsel had stated in his email that he is being forced to continue on the board of the company and no steps are being taken by management to rectify the issues. He notes that the ongoing legal and regulatory infractions are exposing our directors of the company to criminal liability and will inflict reputational damage to our group,” the document notes.
