Mumbai, Oct 14 A Mumbai sessions court has dismissed a revision application seeking the registration of an FIR against several former government functionaries and aviation officials, including ex-Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju, then-Air India Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani, in connection with a 2017 flight safety violation case.
In an order passed on Tuesday, the sessions court noted that a magistrate court's earlier ruling in the matter, against which the revision plea was filed, needs no interference.
Additional Sessions Judge (Dindoshi court) M Mohiuddin refused to set aside the 2018 magistrate's court order that had directed a police investigation solely against Air India Captain A Kathpalia while dismissing the complaint against the remaining high-ranking officials.
The magistrate's order "does not suffer from any illegality, impropriety or incorrectness and needs no interference," the Sessions Judge ruled.
As per the original complaint, filed by senior crew member K V Jagannatharao, Captain Kathpalia on January 19, 2017, operated flight AI-174 from New Delhi to Bengaluru without undergoing the mandatory pre-flight breath analyser examination.
Despite being informed of the missed test upon landing in Bengaluru, the pilot allegedly remained in the sterile area and proceeded to operate the return flight, AI-173, to New Delhi the same night, according to the complaint.
The complainant claimed Kathpalia skipped the post-flight breath analyser test as well, and later made a fraudulent entry in the pre-flight examination register in the absence of a medical officer.
Then Joint Director General, DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation), Lalit Gupta on February 15, 2017, initiated an inquiry in the matter and ordered suspension of the Captain's flying licence, the complainant said.
The informant emphasised that neither Air India nor DGCA examined the pilot's conduct, making an entry in the pre-flight breath analyser examination register, and "it has very serious repercussions".
In the revision application filed before the sessions court, Jagannatharao asserted that the magistrate's court "passed the order on assumptions and presumptions".
According to him, all high-ranking officials, including then-Civil Aviation Minister Raju and Air India CMD Lohani, were also responsible for not taking action against Kathpalia despite a Delhi High Court order.
The sessions court noted that the respondents have placed on record the HC order in which the FIR, chargesheet, and all subsequent legal proceedings against the main accused, Kathpalia, were explicitly quashed.
"As the Delhi High Court was pleased to quash the FIR against the main accused, then how can a direction be issued to register the offence against other accused. More particularly the complaint is totally silent about the specific role of rest of the respondents," Judge Mohiuddin observed.
Gajapathi Raju, the current Goa Governor, served as Minister of Civil Aviation from 2014 to 2018. Lohani was AI Chairman and Managing Director for two separate tenures -- 2015-2017 and 2019-2020.
