PF scam: CBI charges 13 Jet Airways executives and EPFO employee

The EPFO office at Kandivli where Bamne worked. Pic/Nimesh Dave

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has finally registered an FIR against 15 people in connection with the multi-crore Provident Fund (PF) scam that hit Jet Airways employees, almost a year after mid-day's expose in August last year. After conducting a year-long investigation, the Central agency has booked EPFO employee Machindra Bamne, his wife Rupali, and 13 senior executives of Jet Airways. No arrest has been made so far but "the premises of a few tainted people have been visited by the CBI officials," said a source.

mid-day blew the lid off this multi-crore scam on August 20 last year, after which CBI sleuths got in touch with this correspondent to understand the gravity of the scam that affected Jet Airways employees - mostly international pilots, who lost their jobs after the airlines ceased its operations in 2019.

Machindra Bamne the main accused

"A team of nearly a dozen CBI officials have been camping in Kandivli for the past one week in connection with the multi-crore PF scam. Most of them have come from New Delhi. The Central agency sleuths scanned most of the files and their activities were mostly confidential. But we have learnt that the properties of Bamne - the Senior Social Security Assistant at Kandivli PF office, who was suspended last year and subsequently transferred to Mangalore - were searched," said the source.

The FIR was registered on July 11 against the Bamne couple and 13 Jet Airways employees. Bamne was brought to book only after Vigilance Department of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) exposed the gist of irregularities after unraveling the dubious transactions in his bank accounts.

In the cover-page story on August 20, 2022, mid-day exclusively published how the multi-crore PF Scam hit Jet and had also reported about Bamne's suspension for receiving kickbacks over settlement of PF claims of Jet Airways employees. But, despite being neck-deep in corruption, Bamne had issued a legal notice to mid-day last year threatening to file a defamation suit if an apology was not tendered within three days.

"Bamne was found to be involved in various fraudulent activities. While working as Dealing Assistant in Accounts Section in Kandivli, Bamne received illegal gratification in his as well as his wife's bank accounts through multiple modes of online banking from employees of various establishments in lieu of their claim settlement. This aspect has been confirmed in the investigation by cross verifying the online credit entries in the accounts of the official and his wife with the corresponding debit entries in the bank accounts of employees of various establishments, whose EPF claims were settled by Machindra Bamne," reads the copy of the FIR.

CBI sleuths had got in touch with this correspondent to understand the gravity and magnitude of the scam. File pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

"It was further found that the suspicious credit transactions to the tune of approximately R1.77 lakh in their accounts were done by the employees of Jet Airways including Rishiraj Singh Chawla, Raman Sharma, Kakrlapudi Sameerkumar, Vimal Kumar, Rajesh Pagare, Baikumtha Nayak, Paul Louis, Indrajit Mallick, Ahad Hussain, BEjoy James, Sam Thomas, Kedar Gokhale and Divanath," reads the FIR copy, undersigned by Subhash Kundu - the Superintendent of Police, CBI ACB, Mumbai.

The above 15 accused have been booked under sections 120-B of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sections 7 and 12 of Prevention of Corruption Act. A number of former Jet Airways employees, mostly international pilots, have been reeling in severe financial crunch after losing their jobs. These international workers have been desperately writing e-mails to the EPFO, Kandivli office, and have alleged that their ‘e-mails are not being acknowledged'.

Former staffers suffering

Over a dozen former international workers are in touch with mid-day since the day we exposed this PF scam. Dozens of former international workers of Jet Airways have written to the CBI, Union Labour Ministry and other government departments against the airline executives and the erring EPFO staffers for allegedly siphoning their PF money.

The ex-employees, mostly pilots, had learnt about the alleged fraud after coming across a series of reports by mid-day last August. They shared their stories of struggle with this correspondent claiming they were kept in the dark about PF for years.

The pilots, natives of Canada, Malaysia, Panama, , Central America, Czech Republic, France, Venezuela, Portugal and some other European countries, said most of them are jobless and in dire need of money as the aviation industry was badly hit during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sources said PF accounts of Jet pilots with accumulations of lakhs of rupees were fraudulently settled and the money taken away.

‘Bamne being protected'

In the past, the EPFO Central Board of Trustees (CBT) members had raised this Jet Airways issue in the meetings but no action was taken. A source at the Kandivli PF office told mid-day that Bamne was being protected by some senior EPFO officials. "But the series of stories in mid-day caught the attention of CBI officials to register a case against Bamne and others. Now, the layers of scam will be exposed," source added.

A CBT member, Prabhakar Banasure, said, "I had been raising this issue in every meeting. I am wondering how the Regional Provident Fund Commissioner, RO, Kandivli - Sudhir Ganvir, was not aware of this scam. The Chief Provident Fund Commissioner was also apprised of the matter. But it is good if the FIR has been registered in connection with this Jet Airways scam."

July 11
When the FIR was registered

15
No of people booked by CBI in the scam