New Delhi / Govt firm sends ₹1.8 crore for chopper deal to fake account; case filed

The CBI has booked unidentified officials of helicopter service company Pawan Hans for allegedly diverting a payment of Rs 1.85 crore towards the repair of engines of Mi-172 helicopters due to a Russian firm to an Indonesian account in 2016, officials said on Monday, 7 October.

On 20 May 2015, Pawan Hans had entered in a service agreement with Russian firm Klimov JSC for servicing and overhauling engines of three M-172 helicopters in its fleet.

The contract was for Rs 9 crore, they said.

According to the contract, Pawan Hans had to pay an advance of 30 per cent to the Russian company for which an invoice of Rs 1.85 crore was sent, they said.

The invoice sent by Klimov on 19 June 2015, also had details of JP Morgan Chase Bank, New York, in which the advance payment was supposed to be deposited by Pawan Hans, but it was not credited in the account, they said.

Klimov sent a letter next year informing Pawan Hans that the payment has not been credited in its account, they said.

Alleged E-mail Fraud

The Pawan Hans records show that based on a purported e-mail from Klimov from the mail id 'serviceklimov@inbox.ru' dated 12 December 2015, the company sought advance payment to be made in their offshore company account in Municipal Bank, Bulgaria, due to financial account auditing in their company.

Pawan Hans did not make the payment because of non-dispatch of engines, they said.

Pawan Hans dispatched engines on 27 February 2016 for which an acknowledgment was received from an address 'service@klimov.ru'.

The purported mail also asked the 30 per cent advance to be made in an account in 'Bank Mandi, Indonesia'.

Pawan Hans had made the advance payment of around Rs 1.85 crore via wire transfer to the Indonesian bank in March 2016 as per the directions in the mail.

Klimov claimed that they do not own the mail id, they said.

Russian agencies probing the matter found that Indonesian bank belonged to a person named "Bagus Setiawan" and not Klimov.

Klimov through Interior Ministry of Russian Federation had informed the government of India that they would move arbitration court against PHL to recover its due following which it was decided to handover the case to the CBI, they said.

The agency has registered the case against unidentified officials of Pawan Hans and others.