CBI charge-sheets Paramount Airways, its promoter for diverting loan funds to Swiss account

The CBI has filed a charge sheet against Paramount Airways promoter M Thiagarajan and three others for alleged cheating in getting scheduled operator licence and diverting loan funds worth Rs 19 crore from nationalised banks to a Swiss bank account, officials said today.

The agency had registered the case on April 30, 2016 against Thiagarajan for alleged cheating in showing minimum capital of Rs 10 crore required to get scheduled operator's licence and diversion of bank loans to his other companies, the officials said.

During the investigation, the CBI found that Thiagarajan had submitted fake documents to get a scheduled operator's licence and had also opened an offshore account in Singapore for his company Golden Lotus Leasing Corporation (GLLC), which was incorporated in British Virgin Islands and was headquartered in Singapore.

He allegedly diverted loans from State Bank of India, Andhra Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and Bank of India to the offshore account between April 2008 and October 2010, they said.

The agency has alleged in the charge sheet filed in the Patiala House court that the company moved the assets which were hypothecated to banks for loans to run airlines without their knowledge.

It is alleged that the accused siphoned off Rs 19.68 crore between April 2008 and October 2000 to GLLC account maintained with Union Bank of Switzerland in Singapore and showed them as payment towards lease rental-engine access.

The CBI has also alleged that he had induced the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to issue a no-objection certificate for scheduled operators permit by submitting false and fabricated information about the eligibility criteria.

Paramount Airlines started operations in 2005 and was flying to south and eastern parts of India before it wound up operations in 2010.