CBI closes aviation scam case against NCP’s Praful Patel eight months after he joined NDA

The Central Bureau of Investigation has closed a 2017 case involving Rajya Sabha MP Praful Patel regarding the alleged irregularities in leasing aircraft for Air India, reported PTI on Thursday.

This comes eight months after Patel, along with several other senior leaders, joined the Nationalist Congress Party faction headed by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.

The agency filed the closure report in the court of Prashant Kumar, special judge (Central Bureau of Investigation), Rouse Avenue Court, on March 19, according to The Indian Express. The court will take up the matter on April 15.

The Central Bureau of Investigation had alleged that in 2006, Patel abused his position as the Union aviation minister to lease several aircraft for five years to Air India to benefit private players. The agency alleged that this was done even though Air India, then a public carrier, was expecting its own aircraft to be delivered to it from July 2007 onwards.

The lease agreement was finalised by the civil aviation ministry and the National Aviation Corporation of India, a body formed after Air India and Indian Airlines were merged.

The decision to close the case comes nearly eight months after Patel, along with Ajit Pawar, Chhagan Bhujbal and other senior leaders of the Nationalist Congress Party joined Maharashtra’s coalition...

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