New Delhi, Leading News Service: Information has come to light that the CBI has closed the Air India embezzlement case against Praful Patel, the leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Ajit Pawar faction. The CBI has given a clean chit to Praful Patel and the then officials in the case. This is a big relief for Ajit Pawar group leader Praful Patel before the Lok Sabha elections. Interestingly, in July last year, Praful Patel left Sharad Pawar's side and chose to stay with Ajit Pawar. Later Ajit Pawar group came to power in the state.
The CBI had registered a case in May 2017 following a Supreme Court order to probe allegations of aircraft leasing irregularities for Air India. At that time, several officials of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Air India were investigated. In this case, the government was blamed for a loss of Rs 840 crore due to Praful Patel. The CBI closed the investigation after investigating the case for nearly seven years.
Praful Patel, the then aviation minister in the UPA government, was accused of misusing his position to lease a large number of aircraft for Air India, a public carrier at the time. The CBI had also alleged that the aircraft was given on lease basis even as the aircraft procurement program for Air India was underway. National Aviation Corporation of India Limited (NACIL) was formed after the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines.
PM Modi should apologize – Congress
After giving a clean chit to Praful Patel, Congress has reacted strongly. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has reacted through X. “A clean call for Patel means that the allegations leveled by the BJP against the UPA-2 government were false. So the Prime Minister now Dr. Apologize to Manmohan Singh and the nation!” Jairam Ramesh has given such a shocking reaction.
