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Details sought from Customs on Sam Avia

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI APRIL 21. The Delhi police's Special Cell on Saturday sought details from the Customs of the consignments carried by Sam Avia -- the cargo operator accused of forging documents to obtain necessary permits from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation -- in the past six months.

For its part, the Customs had already begun investigating its records before the official request came in. According to sources, no discrepancy was noted by the Air Cargo unit of Customs against Sam Avia in the past five years.

A striking feature is that on most occasions Sam Avia's aircraft would come empty. Only on a few occasions, sources said, did these planes bring anything to India and one such consignment was for the Defence Ministry.

But this was nearly two years ago and of late, nothing significant has been imported through Sam Avia.

From what has emerged so far on the export front, Sam Avia has taken large consignments of garments, leather, and carpets to countries of the Confederation of Independent States. However, these flights have been routed to CIS destinations via Dubai.

According to informed sources, nearly 50 per cent of Sam Avia's earnings came from the cargo its planes would drop off at Dubai. But not all the flights took this route and a lot depended on the kind of orders the company could manage. For all practical purposes, officials said, Sam Avia operated largely to CIS countries.

As for the company's way of functioning, it is understood that Sam Avia basically leased its aircraft at extremely low rates from CIS countries given the depleting state of their economy. And it was not just from Kazakhstan, but also from other CIS countries like Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.

Contrary to the impression that the company flew only the AN series of aircraft, records suggest that Sam Avia used aircraft of various makes popular in the erstwhile USSR, including the Ilyushin series.

These planes would come empty to India on the plea that they had to pick up cargo for CIS destinations from India. Once in India, these planes would often be parked at Indira Gandhi International Airport for about a week or so. Officials believe that this time was used by the operator to get orders from export firms, especially the ones for Dubai.

To obtain necessary permission for bringing in its flights into India, Sam Avia tried to expedite things by getting the embassies of CIS countries to write letters to the Ministry of External Affairs. And on some occasions, these letters were apparently genuine, but in the past few months the letters were forged.

According to police sources, the MEA has denied recommending Sam Avia to the DGCA on the basis of these forged letters. Investigations are, however, on to ascertain the role of various authorities in the granting of these permits.

Meanwhile, transactions in at least seven bank accounts of the company are being investigated. Also, details about the funding of the company are being gathered.

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