Preliminary enquiry by the CBI has revealed prima facie “criminality” in an alleged cheating case involving senior officials of Rajya Sabha Secretariat and some PSUs in claiming leave Travel Concession (lTC). Based on the findings of the enquiry, the agency is all set to file an FIR in the scam soon.
The CBI has already registered a Preliminary Enquiry and has questioned a number of travel agents who have claimed nexus between officials of the Secretariat and PSUs, agency sources said.
Several employees of the Secretariat, Air India, Shipping Corporation of India ltd are likely to be named as accused in the case but the agency is yet to find criminality on the part of any MP.
The agency is also likely to book some of the travel agents for criminal conspiracy. Prima facie there were irregularities in claiming the lTC by PSU officials who colluded with travel agents to maximise personal benefits. The officials also acted against laid down norms for availing leave Travel Concession (lTC), sources said.
lakhs of rupees are suspected to have been fraudulently claimed from the Government through fake leave Travel Concession (lTC) claims made by the officials. The incident had come to light after the vigilance department of Air India was alerted about the arrest of a man in March at the Kolkata airport with 600 blank boarding passes of the airline in his possession.
Suspecting alleged criminal nexus between air travel agents and Government employees, Air India got in touch with the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), which has now asked the CBI to look into the matter. One of the cases to be probed is the leave Travel Concession (lTC) facility availed on December 13, 2012 when seven tickets of Executive Class were purchased for travel on the
Delhi-Kolkata-Port Blair route and back. The Air India in March got a letter from the Rajya Sabha Secretariat asking the airline to conduct an inquiry into this case after it got leave Travel Concession (lTC) claims from seven individuals in this regard. The BJP MP Basavaraj Patil had raised the issue in Rajya Sabha where he claimed false travel claims were made by Central Government and public sector employees through fake tickets for travel on State-run Air India.
Six hundred fake AI tickets have been detected while another 400 SpiceJet tickets have also been traced, he had said, adding, there are cases where Business Class tickets have also been issued to secretary rank officers in flights, which did not have the premium facility.