The central government on Wednesday suspended DGCA official Captain Anil Gill as the aviation regulator is contemplating initiating disciplinary proceedings against him on alleged corruption charges. The ministry of civil aviation said this is a “zero tolerance” approach to malpractices.
“There is zero tolerance for malpractices. Any such issue will always be dealt with the strictest measures in accordance with the law,” said civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.
Amid the graft allegations, a preliminary enquiry against Gill was completed and the report was recently submitted to the ministry of civil aviation. According to a notification issued, he has been suspended under Section 10 of central civil services rules under which the appointing authority may suspend a government official in cases where a disciplinary proceeding against the person is contemplated or is pending.
At present, Gill is a director posted in the directorate of aerosports at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The suspension order said during the period of suspension, Gill should be in the national capital. The preliminary inquiry was conducted as per norms of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).
According to reports, corruption allegations against Gill pertain to his stint at the department handling flying training organisations (FTOs). The DGCA has also started carrying out a reshuffle of duties of various officials and transferring them to different centres.
The decision comes days after the DGCA asked the ministry to transfer a case of bribery against Captain Gill to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The director was recently reassigned to the aerosports department after an anonymous email about the allegations against him was received.
According to a report in Hindustan Times, the email alleged that Captain Gill misused his position to take three aircraft as a bribe from flying schools and, in turn, lease them out to other schools for Rs 90 lakh each. It further alleged that he forced a company, Skynex Aeroflight Solutions (an approved flying training organisation by DGCA), to send him to the Czech Republic for training on Piper PA-28 aircraft; this was not required for his role.
An official told HT that the email said Gill used these visits to form dealership relations between his benami company, Sabres Corporate Solutions, and the aircraft manufacturer (Bristell Aircraft) to “extract commission in forex, while the deal was originally to be direct supply of aircraft to FTO (Skynex)”.
Officials said issues highlighted in a second such email is likely to attract violations under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act.
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