UP IN THE AIR: PRESS RELEASE New Delhi: A Cobrapost investigation reveals how politicians have been using chartered aircraft, with some of them flouting Election Commission norms. One even flew in an aircraft not registered with the DGCA. Some of them have been flying with family members, government officials and corporate barons, sometimes doing several aerial trips in a single day. In some cases, the Airports Authority of India did not disclose the destinations they flew to. Cobrapost also discovered that most of the air charter companies are running into losses worth crores of rupees. Indian politicians don’t confine themselves to addressing rallies in kurta-pyjamas, traversing the country in the heat and dust, accusing each other of anything they can, slinging it out in parliament and the state assembly, making promises they rarely keep. All this apart, there is another mile high side to them that Cobrapost discovered when it sought information from dozens of airports under the Airports Authority of India (AAI) through various Right to Information (RTI) regarding the movement of politicians in private jets. Prominent among the ‘flying politicians’ are Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh, senior BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani, former cabinet minister and NCP president Sharad Pawar, the then leader of Opposition, present foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and former finance minister and now President of India Pranab Mukherjee. Others include senior politicians from the (BJP), the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Biju Janta Dal (BJD), former and sitting chief ministers, parliamentarians, MLAs and general secretaries and other senior party cadres. The list grows longer and longer. Other politicians who flew in private charters include then the BJP president Nitin Gadkari, the NCP’s Praful Patel (who has been the civil aviation minister), Congress leader Veerappa Moily (former chief minister of Karnataka, former minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Minister of Corporate Affairs and Minister of Power), Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Chhattisgargh Chief Minister Raman Singh (BJP), Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal of the Shiromani Akali Dal, former Uttarakhand chief minister Vijay Bahuguna (Congress), BSP chief and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati, ex-chief minister of Andhra Pradesh Kiran Kumar Reddy, former chief minister of Karnataka and currently national vice-president of the BJP B.S. Yeddyurappa, erstwhile chief minister of Karanataka and currently leader of the state opposition Jagdish Shettar (BJP), the current Minister of Law and Justice and former chief minister of Karanataka Sadanand Gowda, Congress Lok Sabha member and former Union Minister of State for the Ministry of Power Jyotiraditya Scindia and former minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Mukul Wasnik of the Congress, among others. In its letter dated January 23, 2013, to the presidents and general secretaries of all political parties, the EC asked all political parties “to submit, for the Commission’s scrutiny, the statement of the election expenditures relating to each Lok Sabha/state legislative assembly”. Elections to the Lok Sabha and for the Andhra Pradesh assembly were held from April 7 to May 12, 2014. According to documents with Cobrapost availed from the EC, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and president of the Telugu Desam Party N. Chandrababu Naidu, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief and former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Mayawati and general secretary of the Trinamool Congress Mukul Roy have not revealed their complete travel expenses during campaigning to the EC in a clear violation of election rules laid down by the commission. Naidu used an aircraft of Krishnapatnam Port Co Ltd with the call sign VT-NAV three times on April 21, 2014. Strangely, Navayuga Engineering Pvt Ltd has also said that Naidu flew in its aircraft – with the same call sign VT-NAV – on April 21 and 22, 2014. According to DGCA documents available with Cobrapost, VT-NAV is not registered with them in its list of non-scheduled operators permit holder. This implies that VT-NAV is operating without a DGCA permit and raises the alarming question that how has AAI allowed it to fly? This also poses a serious security risk. Rajya Sabha member and former railway minister Mukul Roy was a star campaigner in West Bengal, Tripura and Jharkhand for the Trinamool Congress (TMC) for the Lok Sabha elections. In its expenditure account to the EC, the TMC has declared that Mukul Roy travelled in a chartered aircraft for which the TMC paid Rs. 2 crore. However, Roy also used the services of Northeast Shuttles Pvt Ltd on March 3, 2014, to fly from Ranchi to Kolkata, according to documents available with Cobrapost, a fact that he withheld from the EC. On the flight Roy was with former director general of police Rajat Majumdar. Majumdar was arrested by the CBI in September 2014 for his alleged involvement in the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam in West Bengal. In all, Cobrapost found over 100 politicians using chartered aircraft from just a few airports. Some of the flight plans of politicians: Another interesting aspect came to the fore during the Cobrapost investigation. On January 26, 2014, then Congress MLA from Gandhi Nagar, Delhi, and president of the Congress’ Delhi unit Arvinder Singh Lovely took a chartered flight from Jaipur to Delhi. Strangely, Arvinder Singh was with BJP leader Sudhanshu Mittal and then Congress MLA Haroon Yusuf, less than a month before Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal stepped down as Delhi’s chief minister on February 14, 2014. On February 13, 2014, Praful Patel flew from Vadodara to Gondiya with NCP leader and former minister of state in the Ministry of Mines (Independent Charge) Dinsha Patel, in an Air One Aviation Pvt Ltd chartered jet. At that time, Patel was the minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises (January 2011 to May 2014). Then on March 9, Patel went to Gondia in Maharashtra from Jaipur with his chartered accountant Namrata in an Indo-Pacific Aviation Ltd jet. Earlier on December 14, 2012, Patel travelled to Ahmedabad from Vadodara in a King Rotors and Air Pvt Ltd aircraft. He took a chartered flight on October 10, 2012, to fly from Vadodara to Mumbai with NCP leader and Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule and other ministers in Maharashtra government, including Chhagan Bhujbal, Sunil Tatkare, Baban Rao Pachpute. Other prominent NCP leaders who accompanied him included Madhukar Pichad, Vinayak Mete, Hemant Takle and Jitendra Ahwad. Patel availed the services of Pinnacle Air Services on September 7, 2012, for his travel from Vadodara to Mumbai, and on February 4, 2013, from Vadodara to Mumbai on an Indian Steel Work Pvt. Ltd. flight. On May 12, 2013, he took a GVK Aviation flight (now GVK Project and Technical Services Ltd) from Vadodara to Gondia with his wife Varsha Patel. On September 7, 2013, he flew to Gondia from Vadodara in an aircraft belonging to the Adani Group. On November 6, 2011, Patel and the director of Larsen & Toubro S.N. Roy flew in a company aircraft from Vadodara to Mumbai. On May 15, 2010, Patel travelled from Mangalore to Mumbai with the then road transport minister Oscar Fernandez in a chartered aircraft belonging to the GMR Group. Veerappa Moily, Congress leader and a senior minister in the earlier Congress-led government, travelled in a GMR Group aircraft from Mangalore to Delhi with his wife on September 9, 2012. Moily was the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Minister of Corporate Affairs and Minister of Power in 2012. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan of the BJP too availed chartered flights of corporate houses. On March 7, 2014, he flew with six others from Jaipur to Bhopal in a Ligare Aviation Airking B-200 eight-seater jet. The cost of this 439 km flight would have been approximately Rs. 4 lakh. On May 1, 2013, Chouhan flew to Bangalore from Bhopal on a Business Jet India flight. Chouhan and his wife Sadhna went to Bhopal from Dehradun on June 19, 2013, on an SRC Aviation flight. On June 23, 2013, the chief minister travelled from Bhopal to Banda on a chartered flight belonging to the Jaypee Group and on September 22, 2013, Chouhan used an Orbit Aviation for his aerial movement to Umaria from Bhopal. (Orbit Aviation belongs to the Shiromani Akali Dal’s Bikram Singh Majithia, a minister in Punjab.) The next day, Chouhan flew from Bhopal to Delhi. If this was not enough, Chouhan also used the Madhya Pradesh Government flights for personal use. On December 31, 2011, Chouhan flew with his wife and sons Kartik and Kunal from Mangalore to Ojar in Maharashtra. On December 13, 2013, he went to Bhopal from Jaipur in a state government aircraft. On December 29, 2011, he went from Mangalore to Agati in Lakshadweep again in a state government plane. Chief minister of Chhattisgarh since 2003, Raman Singh availed aircraft of the Dainik Bhaskar Group at least three times for personal use. On June 6, 2013, Raman Singh flew from Raipur to Tirupati; the next day from Tirupati to Goa and on August 12, 2013, from Raipur to Hyderabad with his wife Veena Singh, son Abhishek Singh and daughter-in-law Aishwarya. Apart from this, Raman Singh used the official aircraft of the state government on May 5, 2013, to fly from state capital Raipur to Jagdalpur with his family. Raman Singh also flew in Dainik Bhaskar Group’s aircraft on December 29, 2013, from Raipur to Indore with his wife, son and daughter-in-law. He used the media group’s aircraft once more: on February 16, 2013, from Raipur to Chandigarh. Raman Singh flew four more times in chartered aircraft, according to documents with Cobrapost. On January 7, 2014, former Union Minister for Corporate Affairs Sachin Pilot used a chartered flight of the GMR Group to fly from Tirupati to Delhi with his entire family in a Hawker 750 nine-seater jet. The 1,247 km would have cost the Pilot family approximately Rs. 6 lakh. Then on April 5, 2014, Pilot flew from Jaipur to Gogra in Rajasthan in a Ligare Aviation aircraft. A year earlier in 2013, Pilot had used the same charter company to go to Ghoongra (Ajmer) from Jaipur on November 29. On November 27, 2013, Pilot flew from Jaipur to Delhi in an Orbit Aviation chartered aircraft. A day earlier, he had flown from Jaipur to Avra in Rajasthan in an India Flysafe plane and on November 5, 2013, from Jaipur to Nagaur via Aerotech Aviation India Pvt Ltd. Another interesting aspect came to the fore during the Cobrapost investigation. On January 26, 2014, then Congress MLA from Gandhi Nagar, Delhi, and president of the Congress’ Delhi unit Arvinder Singh Lovely took a chartered flight from Jaipur to Delhi. Strangely, he was with BJP leader Sudhanshu Mittal and then Congress MLA Haroon Yusuf, less than a month before Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal stepped down as Delhi’s chief minister on February 14, 2014. Biju Janata Dal MP Pinaki Misra travelled with the managing director of Triveni Earthmovers B. Prabhakaran from Ranchi to Delhi on January 11, 2013, in an SRC Aviation chartered aircraft. Prabhakaran is known to be the “mining king” of Odisha, though officially he does not own a single mine and claims to be just a contractor. The Shah Commission appointed by the Supreme Court in 2010 to probe illegal mining in Odisha indicted Prabhakaran and recommended a CBI inquiry. When Cobrapost contacted Mishra via e-mail with a set of questions regarding his use of chartered aircraft, he replied that: “You may be aware that I am a senior advocate by profession. I appear in high courts all over India and it is the clients responsibility to pay for my passage and boarding and lodging apart from my professional fees. This is the standard practice in the legal profession and all advocates routinely use private/chartered flights paid for by clients when no convenient commercial flight is available.” While he was the minority affairs minister, Congress leader Salman Khursheed flew from Mumbai to Thiruvananthapuram and from Thiruvananthapuram to Rajmundri on March 22, 2010, on an International Air Charter Operations Pvt. Ltd. flight. When Cobrapost contacted Khursheed via e-mail with a set of questions regarding his use of chartered aircraft, he replied: “Since you have details that I no longer have I am unable to help you further. Sometimes people who have a programme and there is no way to get a guest there in time travel arrangements are made. You can find out from the charter who booked and on what terms. I certainly did neither. I appreciate your having taken the trouble to ask. Incidentally Rajamundri is no destination but just a refuelling halt. By the way some friends have their own aircraft and do oblige even now.” Chief minister of Uttarakhand from 2012 to 2014 and Congress leader Vijay Bahuguna also used corporate houses’ charter flights. On January 23, 2014, he flew from Uttarakhand’s capital Dehradun to Delhi with his son Saket Bahuguna, Saket’s wife Gauri, former minister of state for Parliamentary Affairs and Planning and former chairman of Indian Premier League (IPL) Rajeev Shukla. (Shukla resigned over alleged corruption and spot-fixing in the IPL in 2013). Two days later, Vijay Bahuguna, Saket and Gauri flew from Dehradun to GTC helipad (in Uttarakhand) in a UT Air India Pvt Ltd charter aircraft. Then on January 28, 2014, Vijay Bahuguna and Saket flew to Delhi from Dehradun in an Air Charter services aircraft. Vijay Bahuguna and Yashpal Arya (minister of revenue, land management, disaster management and rehabilitation and irrigation) and two others flew from Dehradun to GTC Helipad on June 14, 2013, in an Escorts Ltd aircraft. The Escort Group is among India’s leading conglomerates operating in the high growth sector of agricultural machinery, construction and material handling equipment. In June 2013, a multi-day cloudburst in Uttarakhand caused devastating floods and landslides in the countrys worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami. On December 4, 2013, Vijay Bahuguna, Saket, Gauri and Rajeev Shukla went to Delhi from Dehradun in a Span Air aircraft. On October 3, 2013, the chief minister, his wife Sudha Bahuguna and Rajeev Shukla took a Ligare Aviation charter flight to Delhi from Dehradun. On September 15, 18, and October 3, 2013, Vijay Bahuguna travelled in Ligare Aviation flights from Dehradun to Delhi. With him was Congress leader Rajeev Shukla on the October 3 flight. Again on September 27, 2013, Vijay Bahuguna took an Air Charter Services Pvt Ltd flight from Dehradun to Delhi, while on October 5 the same year he and his son Saket flew to Sahastradhara in Uttarakhand from Dehradum in a Prabhatam Aviation chartered aircraft. Then on December 22, 2013, the chief minister’s wife Sudha flew to Delhi from Dehradun with their son Saurav, again in an Air Charter Services aircraft. A Dehradun to Delhi chartered flight costs approximately Rs. 2.50 lakh while a single seat in a commercial flight costs just Rs. 5,000 (one way). According to documents with Cobrapost, Vijay Bahuguna flew five more times in chartered aircraft.Information with Cobrapost from the AAI threw up some startling news: most of the chartered flights were in aircraft owned by business houses, raising several questions. In a peculiar twist, documents with Cobrapost availed from the Registrar of Companies of some charter companies who filed their balance sheets reveal that they have been running into losses worth crores of rupees. Bajaj Aviation Pvt Ltd, which belongs to the Bajaj Group, has showed losses of Rs. 153.21 lakh for the financial year 2010-11, Rs. 154.04 in FY 2011-12 and Rs. 638.23 lakh in FY 2012-13. The company’s accumulated loss stands at Rs. 8.04 crore in FY 2012-13. GMR Aviation Pvt Ltd, favoured by most politicians, has suffered a loss of Rs. 23.34 crore in 2012-13 and Rs. 6.06 crore in 2013-14. GMR has an outstanding loan of Rs. 304.99 crore in FY 2013-14. Karnavati Aviation Pvt Ltd (KAPL) has also incurred massive losses: Rs. 5.32 crore in 2012-13 and Rs. 15.67 crore in 2013-14. KAPL has also taken an accumulated loan of nearly Rs. 277 crore. Another air charter company, Himalayaputra Aviation Ltd, which is owned by the Jaypee Group, is also operating under losses of Rs. 7.07 lakh in 2011-12 and Rs. 10.32 crore in 2012-13. When Cobrapost e-mailed Himalayaputra Aviation Ltd seeking details of how and how much they paid for the air charters, the company’s profit/losses, the company replied seeking a week’s time to reply. Ashley Aviation Pvt Ltd, owned by the Hinduja Group, has incurred losses of Rs.21.89 lakh in 2011-12 and Rs. 3.43 crore in 2012-13. Hiranandani Aviation Pvt Ltd incurred losses of Rs. 6.67 crore in 2010-11, Rs. 9.38 crore in 2011-12 and Rs. 7.60 crore in 2012-13. Airmid Aviation Services Pvt Ltd reported a loss of Rs. 1,513.85 lakh in 2009-10, Rs. 1,084.60 lakh in 2010-11, Rs. 156.36 lakh in 2011-12 and Rs. 271.48 lakh in 2012-13. The company’s accumulated losses were Rs. 4,240.85 lakh in 2009-10, Rs. 5,325.47 lakh in 2010-11, Rs. 6,051.96 lakh in 2011-12 and Rs. 6,323.45 lakh in 2012-13 showing a northward trend. When Cobrapost e-mailed Airmid Aviation Services Pvt Ltd seeking details of how and how much they paid for the air charters, the company’s profit/losses, the company replied that “in FY 2014, Airmid reported a Profit before Tax of Rs. 18.9cr. Charter business like airlines business is a tough business and starts generating money after few years. Since FY2010-11, Airmid has been making operating profits”. “On your other queries, it will not be appropriate for details of a contract between a private company and its customers to be made public… clients of charter services are generally governments, political parties and high profile personalities and confidentiality is important since most of our customers desire privacy and require security besides convenience. That said, we can confirm that general charter rates of Rs 1.25 lacs – Rs 1.5 lacs per hour are levied for all flights”. It added that “receipts from NCP exceed Rs 60 lacs”. Global Vectra Helicorp Ltd also reported losses: Rs. 4,437.74 lakh in 2010-11 and Rs. 2,415.84 lakh in 2011-12. However, it made profits of Rs. 685.31 lakh and Rs. 549.15 lakh in 2013-2014 and 2012-13 respectively. EIH Ltd reported profits of Rs. 9,504.1 lakhs, Rs. 5,096.45 lakhs and Rs. 12,241.90 lakhs in the FYs 2013-2014, 2012-2013 and 2011-2012 respectively. With most of the air charter companies running into massive losses, this raises another question: how are these companies still operating despite suffering repeated losses running into crores of rupees and why are they in the business of air charter if it is not a viable venture? The cost to hire a private charter from Delhi to Bangalore – a distance of 1,745 km as the crow flies – works out to be approximately Rs. 7 lakh. In comparison, the salary of a chief minister in India ranges from Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 30,000 per month, apart from various other allowances. Every chief minister is allotted just Rs. 50,000 a year for travel expenses. A member of parliament gets Rs. 50,000 per month and an additional Rs. 2,000 for each day he/she attends either House plus a traveling allowance of Rs. 16 per kilometer for road travel. A cabinet minister gets around Rs. 50,000 as salary apart from other allowances. The number of flights and aircraft in this story are just a miniscule example and the tip of the iceberg of politicians’ penchant for high-flying in plush private and chartered aircraft from just a few airports in the country. There are hundreds of chartered flights that these politicians used from various other airports. Apart from the examples carried here, there are over a hundred others in the main story done by Cobrapost on cobrapost. Cobrapost e-mailed a questionnaire to over 100 politicians and some individuals who hired and used chartered and private aircraft listing details of the flights and asking them who paid for the flights, the cost of the flights as per the invoice and the mode of payment thereof? Out of them, only 10 replied. Cobrapost also e-mailed another set of questions to nearly 85 air charter companies, listing details of politicians and individuals who used air charters, their dates, destinations and aircraft used. Cobrapost asked the companies how much they charged for each flight, who paid for the flights, The individual(s) or the party they are affiliated with, the mode of payment, whether regular aviation charter rates were followed while leasing the aircraft to the said individuals and the companies’ profits/losses for the last three financial years. By 7 p.m. December 18th, 2014, 10 politicians and four companies replied. Of the four firms, one sought a week’s time to reply. Cobrapost also e-mailed the two major national parties, the Congress and the BJP, giving them a detailed list of their politicians who used chartered aircraft, listing details of the flights and asking who paid for the flights, their cost as per the invoice and the mode of payment? Neither of the parties replied. (Log on to cobrapost for the full story) Aniruddha Bahal Editor Cobrapost Date-19.12.2014
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 05:24:19 +0000
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