Ailing Air India, which was recently hit by LTC scam, has stumbled upon another case of fraud involving crores of rupees in a scheme meant for family members of the employees of the state-run airline.

The case has been referred to CBI after a discreet probe launched by the Vigilance department of the public carrier unearthed a scam in its Family Fare Scheme (FFS) in which the cash-strapped airline was defrauded, sources said Friday.

The help of CBI for further probe was sought by the Vigilance department since the case had all India ramifications, the sources added.

Under the FFS, concession is given to employees of the airline in which they can take their family to a domestic destination once a year at subsidised cost.

Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of Air India B K Maurya confirmed to the agency that one suspect travel agency had been identified during their initial probe who alone was allegedly responsible for an estimated loss of over Rs six crore to the airline due to the alleged fraud in the FSS.

“We have referred the matter to CBI. It is suspected that many more travel agencies could be involved in this case causing direct loss of crores of rupees to AI,” he said.

The AI spokesman did not immediately respond to phone calls and messages sent to his mobile.

The AI has asked the CBI to take up a probe as “the case has all India ramifications with possible loss caused to the government and AI with possible involvement of other governmental and non-governmental agencies.”

A CBI official said that according to an internal probe of the Air India’s Vigilance team, which had looked into the records from 2007, had found that in one particular sector alone the alleged fraud under the FFS involved 5,916 tickets.

The probe report said the travel operator “indulged in fraudulently altering the fare on flown coupons to higher amount than the fare shown on the audit coupons and thus presumably keeping the excess amount which is difference of fare as per flight coupons and the audit coupons.”

The Vigilance probe also found that a mandatory rule of mentioning that ‘all family members travel together’ was not found printed in a number of tickets issued under FSS which has to be mandatorily stamped so that the scheme is not misused.

Sources said the alleged fraudsters, which AI suspects could also involve its staff, separated the passenger and AI redemption coupons by writing two different fares aimed at claiming more money from the airline.

The flag carrier has asked the CBI to take up the case as it suspects the scam has pan-India ramifications with many more such travel agents and the fraud estimates could be as high as Rs 15-20 crore over a period of time.

The preliminary in-house enquiry conducted by the Vigilance department found out that the fraud was largely carried out on the Chennai-Port Blair and Kolkata-Port Blair sector and this caused a loss of Rs 2.70 crore to the AI but the overall loss to the exchequer was over Rs six crore.

The Vigilance department of the airline had detected a similar fraud in the Leave Travel Concession (LTC) scheme and the CBI is currently probing the case.

All the accused in the Shakti Mill gang-rape case in which a telephone operator was the victim on Friday denied the charges against them before the sessions court.

“The court completed recording of the statements of the accused under section 313 of Criminal Procedure Code,” said special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam.

Section 313 provides the accused person an opportunity to explain the circumstances and to refute the allegations.

Principal Sessions Judge Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi, who recorded the statements of the accused in an in-camera hearing, put as many as 496 questions to them. “The accused denied all the allegations against them,” Nikam later told reporters.

Police arrested Mohammed Ashfaq Sheikh, Mohamed Kasim Hafiz Sheikh alias Kasim Bangali, Salim Ansari, Vijay Jadhav and a minor boy for gang-rape of the 18-year-old telephone operator on July 31 last year. The minor’s case has been separated.

A journalist intern with a magazine was also gang-raped in the same premises a few days later when she had gone there with a male colleague for assignment.

Vijay Jadhav, Kasim Bengali, Salim Ansari and Siraj Rehman are accused in this case, alongwith another minor, whose case was separated.

The Thane Municipal Corporation has passed a resolution to reinstate civic personnel accused in the last year’s Mumbra building collapse which left 74 people dead.

The general body of Thane Municipal Corporation last evening unanimously passed a resolution approving the reinstatement of the civic personnel.

The matter was supported by all party corporators and was declared as passed by Mayor H S Patil, who presided over the meeting.

A total of 27 persons including the builders of the ill-fated structure were charged in the case and of them 24 were arrested while three are still at large.

The officers and employees have been charged with accepting bribe, dereliction of duty and culpable homicide.

Of the nine arrested, three – deputy municipal commissioner Srikant Sarmokdam, assistant municipal commissioner Shyam Thorbhole and driver of a DMC Ramdas Burud – are out on bail.

Those who are still in jail include DMC Deepak Chavan, AMC Babasaheb Andale, executive engineer Subash Rawal, deputy engineer Ramesh Inamdar, senior clerk Kisan Madke and clerk Subash Waghmare.

On 4 April last year, a building collapsed in Mumbra suburb of Thane collapse killing 74 people and leaving more than 60 injured.

The building was under-construction and did not have an occupancy certificate for its 100 to 150 low-to middle-income residents.

Former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Friday opposed the idea of carving out another state from Maharashtra.

In the wake of Parliament passing the Telangana bill, demand for separate state of Vidarbha has again come to fore in Maharashtra.

Talking to reporters after visiting the Saibaba temple in Shirdi, Chavan said separate state would not solve the problems of Vidarbha or Marathwada regions.

Chavan himself hails from Marathwada. When asked if he was interested in contesting the Lok Sabha election, Chavan, who was named in Adarsh Society scam by the CBI, but whose prosecution was vetoed by the state government, said the Congress high command will take the decision on this.

The Bombay High Court asked Maharashtra Medical Education Minister to file an affidavit in response to a PIL seeking his and his family members’ prosecution for allegedly amassing assets disproportionate to the known sources of income.

The bench headed by Justice S J Vajifdar asked the NCP leader Dr. Vijaykumar Gavit to declare, in the affidavit, the sources of income from which he purchased properties alleged in the PIL. It is to be filed by March 7.

Advocate Uday Warunjikar, petitioner’s lawyer, said Gavit’s father was a teacher in Nandurbar. Gavit himself worked as a lecturer until 1994. His last monthly salary in June 1994 was Rs. 9,715, according to the petitioners, who are Nashik-based activist.

His brother Sharad worked as a Class-IV employee in the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation. His last drawn salary in 1994 was Rs. 1,290.

Gavit was elected as MLA in 1994 and made Tribal Development Minister. His brother was transferred to Mantralaya as a special officer. Sharad, too, was elected as an MLA from Navapur constituency in 2009.

Warunjikar said the information acquired through the Right To Information Act showed Gavit having personal assets of Rs. 1.3 crore, and his family’s assets (in the name of wife and daughters) were worth Rs. 1.5 crore.

Nomination papers filed by Gavit in 2009 showed his assets at Rs. 2.23 crore and his family’s assets at Rs. 4.78 crore.

“The rise in his wealth after he became minister shows that it was generated by using illegal means, taking undue advantage of his status as a Member of Legislative Assembly and as a minister,” the PIL alleges.