New Delhi: The CBI has carried out searches at the offices of the GVK Group in Mumbai and Hyderabad. The enforcement agency did so after registering a case against GVK Group’s chairman, Venkata Krishna Reddy Gunupati. The case has been registered connection with alleged irregularities to the tune of Rs 705 crore in running the Mumbai airport. The agency operation was conducted Wednesday and continued till late in the evening, they added.
The case pertains to the alleged siphoning off Rs 705 crore from the funds of Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL). The MIAL is a joint venture under public-private partnership (PPP) between the GVK Airport Holdings Limited and the Airports Authority of India (AAI). There are also other investors in the MIAL. The funds were siphoned by showing inflated expenditure, under-reporting of revenues and fudging of records. There were also other discrepancies, CBI officials informed.
Also read: Mumbai airport scam: CBI books GVK Group chairman GVK Reddy, son GV Sanjay Reddy
The CBI has booked Gunupati, a director in MIAL and his son GV Sanjay Reddy, MD in MIAL. It has also booked the companies MIAL, GVK Airport Holdings Limited (a GVK group company) and nine other private companies. These companies have allegedly been used to camouflage the inflated figures through sham deals and unidentified AAI officials, they added.
The AAI had formed a joint venture with GVK Airports Holdings Limited under public-private partnership firm MIAL. It was for upgradation and maintenance of the Mumbai airport.
April 4, 2006, AAI entered into an agreement with MIAL for modernisation, upkeep, operation and maintenance of the Mumbai airport.
It is alleged that the promoters of the GVK group in MIAL worked in connivance with their executives and unidentified AAI officials. They resorted to siphoning off funds using different ways, the officials said.
The agency has alleged that they siphoned off funds showing execution of bogus work contracts to nine companies in 2017-18. It has caused a loss of Rs 310 crore. The promoters of the GVK group allegedly misused the reserve funds of MIAL to the tune of Rs 395 crore to finance their group companies, the CBI has alleged.
