Nagpur: A top Airports Authority of India (AAI) official at Gondia’s Birsi airport has been named in an FIR by CBI’s anti-corruption branch for criminal misconduct and fudging books to siphon off Rs 1.15 crore for himself and a contractor, M/s Raisingh & Company. The AAI official, Sanjeev Kumar Singh, who’s assistant general manager (engineering-civil), is accused of irregularities in construction of the operational boundary at the revamped runway 22 and Doppler VHF Omnidirectional Range facility, a critical radio navigation aid for aircraft. The contract was awarded to Raisingh & Company in May 2023, work commenced a year later, and was completed in February 2024.CBI established that Singh acted in connivance with other AAI officials and the contractor to abuse his position as a public servant to scrape AAI coffers. The actual value of work executed was Rs. 3.5 crore, but payments of Rs 4.65 crore were released based on manipulated measurements in books, said CBI sources. After adjustments in running account bills, a loss of Rs 92.29 lakh remains to be recovered from the contractor, Raisingh and Company.The investigation further disclosed several irregularities, including compromise on quality, non-maintenance of invoices for critical raw materials like cement, steel and reinforcements. The contractor allegedly used sub-standard reinforcement materials, executed additional works beyond the sanctioned scope without approval from seniors and deviated from permissible limits specified in the work order. Also, fly ash bricks were used instead of burnt clay bricks. Singh allegedly ignored orders from the technical sanctioning authority and allowed quality compromises, causing undue benefits to the contractor.Irregularities have surfaced at a time when Birsi Airport (Gondia) is actively upgrading its infrastructure, including navigation aids like DVOR, to improve operations and enable night landings in the region.AAI officials and representatives of the contractor could not be reached for comment. CBI sources that further arrests and seizures may follow. CBI has got the nod under Section 17A of Prevention of Corruption Act to proceed against the accused public servant.
