ED files money laundering case against GVK group, MIAL in Mumbai airport scam case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a money laundering case against the GVK group, the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) and others to probe alleged irregularities to the tune of Rs 705 crore in running the Mumbai airport, officials said on Tuesday.

The central probe agency has filed an enforcement case information report (equivalent of a police FIR) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act after studying a recent CBI FIR filed against the same entities.

The ED will probe if genuine funds were laundered to amass personal assets by illegal routing of funds, they said.

The CBI case pertains to the alleged siphoning off Rs 705 crore from the funds of the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), a joint venture under public-private partnership (PPP) between the GVK Airport Holdings Limited and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) besides other investors, by showing inflated expenditure, under-reporting of revenues, fudging of records among others.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked Gunupati, a director in MIAL, his son GV Sanjay Reddy, managing director in MIAL, the companies MIAL, GVK Airport Holdings Limited (a GVK group company) and nine other private companies allegedly used to camouflage the inflated figures through sham deals and unidentified AAI officials, they added.

On April 4, 2006, the AAI entered into an agreement with MIAL for the modernisation, upkeep, operation and maintenance of the Mumbai airport.

It is alleged that the promoters of the GVK group in MIAL, in connivance with their executives and unidentified AAI officials, resorted to siphoning off funds using different ways, the CBI had said early this month.

The CBI had also carried out raids in Mumbai and Hyderabad after filing its FIR.