Minister for Civil Aviation, Ajit Singh on Monday ordered immediate suspension and initiation of major penalty proceedings against six senior officers of Airports Authority of India (AAI). A CBI inquiry found them guilty of committing serious irregularities and wrong doing at various airports including Chennai, Kolkata Trivandrum, Coimbatore, Calicut, Mangalore and Tiruchi.

The CBI investigations had revealed that these officials – L.L. Krishnan, Executive Director (Commercial), R.L. Saran, DGM (Finance), S. Basu, Additional GM (Commercial), Arun Mehan, DGM (Operations), P.K. Chadha, DGM (Operations) and Ravi Verma, GM favoured a particular company in award of contracts for ground handling services at certain airports, an official statement issued here said on Monday.

t Prem Bajaj, managing director, of Bhadra International, the suspect company, R. V. Narayanan, retired ED (Commercial), Ajit Kumar Dubey, retired ED (Finance), 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 may be initiated against the company for cancellation of the award/contract and recovery of dues, the statement added.