Anil Gill, director in the flying and training division of DGCA has used his position to take three aircraft as bribe from flying schools and in turn leasing the planes to a different schools on a monthly lease rental of Rs 90 lakh each, a whistleblower letter, details of which was verified by ET shows.
Followed by the complaint, Gill has been transferred from his position and an investigation has been started against him by vigilance wing of DGCA.
India’s flying schools have been rocked by a series of accidents over the last few years, the reason for which has been primarily lack of maintenance of aircraft or not adhering to DGCA laws.
Five aircraft of Redbird Aviation, the largest flight school have crash landed in last six months due to engine failure. Investigations have found that the planes were not maintained properly and the trainers were not complying with critical safety rules of DGCA.
Company records showed that two companies called Blue Throat Aviation and Sabres Corporate Solutions Limited which has Gill’s sister-in-law and borther-in-law as directors have leased at least two aircraft to Redbird Aviation. The aircraft VT-EUC, VT-AAY are Cessna aircraft which are popular among flight training schools. ET has reviewed balance sheet of these companies which shows these aircraft as their assets. The Certificate of Registration of the aircraft shows the subsequent leasing of these aircraft to the flight schools.
Sources said that Gill, a trained pilot himself held a very powerful position in DGCA as he was the only person who had expertise in training aircraft in DGCA. Due to this, he has been responsible of regulating flights schools for over last seven years.
Last year, when DGCA had audited all flying training schools of India after multiple accidents, Gill was in-charge of the process.
In 2019, the DGCA had directed its officers not audit or investigate companies where there is conflict of interest.
“During the audits, he points out to some lapses and blackmails the schools that he will shut them down and then forces them to sell the training aircraft to the companies owned by his relatives at nominal price. He then leases out the aircraft to some other training school in return of favour including overlooking lapses,” a senior executive of a flight school said.
Gill told ET that while his sister-in-law was a director in one of the companies, she had resigned in 2019.
“Till the time my family was involved, the company used to do real estate business. I don’t know what happened after that,” he said adding that while the current owners of the companies are his acquaintances he doesn’t know them directly. “I have informed DGCA of my family relatives being involved in any kind of aviation business,” he said.
Redbird Aviation said that the company is not aware of any such financial transactions. “A DGCA audit is currently under way and we are also tightening our process after the accidents. But we can’t comment on the allegations,” Shelka Gupta a vice president at the company said
However, senior DGCA officials said that since it was a financial fraud, the regulator may not have capability to investigate and that Enforcement Directorate should be entrusted with the case. “We are seized of the matter,” DGCA head Vikram Dev Dutt who has transferred Gill to a separate division.
Senior industry officials pointed to the lack of manpower in DGCA as the root cause of such problems. “Aviation is a highly regulated business. Indian regulations are even more stringent compared to EASA, FAA and ICAO guidelines. This creates over dependency on regulators, bottlenecks and delays and even can give rise to unfair or corrupt practices,” said Hemanth D.P., CEO of Asia Pacific Flight Training Academy
India needs bring her regulations in line with global regulators to stub out potential corruption and and the country to become self reliant in pilot training, he said.
