The CBI has closed a seven-year-old corruption case against Praful Patel, a leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar faction), ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, sources in the agency said on Thursday.
Last year, Ajit Pawar had rebelled against his uncle, Sharad Pawar, and joined the BJP-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra.
Acting on instructions from the Supreme Court, the CBI had registered a graft case in 2017, alleging irregularities in certain decisions taken during Patel’s tenure as civil aviation minister of the UPA government. The agency had alleged that the decisions cost national carrier Air India thousands of crores of rupees.
“Recently, we have filed a closure report before the competent court,” said a CBI official without divulging any details on the agency’s sudden U-turn in the case.
The agency has so far not issued any official statement, explaining the reason behind the closure report.
Earlier, the agency had alleged that foreign airlines were given unrestricted entry into India and major routes were given to them without taking any reciprocal benefits to Air India during Patel’s tenure as the civil aviation minister.
It was also alleged that Air India reduced its flights on lucrative routes such as Mumbai-Dubai, Mumbai-Ahmedabad and Mumbai-Doha to give its opponents a major market share.
