TMC Reacts ON LTC Scam

LTC scam: CBI books cases against MPs  -Hindu Business Line
New Delhi, June 13:  

The Trinamool Congress on Friday accused the Union Government of using the CBI for “political vendetta” after the agency booked one of its parliamentarians among six sitting and former Rajya Sabha MPs for reimbursement through forged bills.

 

The CBI has filed an FIR against three sitting and three former MPs in what has come to be termed the Fake LTC (Leave Travel Concession) scam. Brajesh Pathak of the BSP, D Bandhopadhyay of the TMC and Lalhming Liana of the Mizo National Front are the three sitting MPs named in the FIR.

 

The FIR also mentions three former MPs — JPN Singh of the BJP, Mahmood A Madani of the Rashtriya Lok Dal and Renu Bala Pradhan of the BJD. CBI officials said searches are on at 10 different locations in Delhi and Odisha. These include the premises of persons named in the FIR as well as some travel agents.

 

Fake boarding passes

The FIR says the MPs claimed full payment on companion air tickets from the Rajya Sabha Secretariat using fake e-tickets for travelling by Air India flight.

 

Sources said the CBI found some more instances of alleged criminality when documents recovered during the first case registered in this connection on November 1 last year were scrutinised. In the first FIR in the LTC scam, the CBI booked JD(U) Rajya Sabha MP Anil Kumar Sahani for allegedly drawing around ₹9.5 lakh by presenting fake air tickets and boarding passes.

 

Besides the MP, an Air India customer service agent, Rubaina Akhtar, and a Lajpat Nagar, Delhi-based travel operator, Air Cruise Travels Pvt Ltd, were also named in the FIR. The LTC claims were forged citing travel on Air India.

 

The CBI had found prima facie irregularities in the LTC claims with an intention to maximise personal benefit by scuttling the norms in collusion with travel agents. The scam came to light after Air India’s vigilance department was alerted about the arrest of a man at Kolkata airport in March 2013 with 600 blank boarding passes of the airline in his possession.

 

Leader maligned

The TMC, which is also being targeted by the BJP for alleged violence in the Lok Sabha polls, reacted sharply to veteran party leader Bandhopadhyay being “maligned” for political reasons.

“For years, the Congress government has used the CBI with a political motive. The BJP is following that sickening path,” said Trinamool parliamentarian and spokesperson Derek O’Brien.

 

“We strongly condemn this attitude of using the CBI with the motive of political vendetta against the main opposition parties. In a democratic set-up, this is just not done. We will fight this in the way we have fought our battles for the last 35 years — politically and democratically,” added O’Brien.

 

Link Hindu Business Line

CBI Arrests 6 MPs of Rajya Sabha In LTC Scam

LTC scam: CBI books six present, former Rajya Sabha MPs-times of India -13th June 2014

NEW DELHI: The CBI on Friday registered cases against six current and former Rajya Sabha MPs in the Leave and Travel Concession (LTC) scam, an official said.

This is the first case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the scam.

According to the agency, searches are being conducted at 10 locations, which include the houses, office premises of the MPs and also at the offices of travel agencies in Delhi and Odisha.

Lakhs of rupees are said to have been fraudulently claimed from the government through fake leave travel concession (LTC) claims, availed by government officials to get concessional tickets.

The incident came to light after the vigilance department of Air India (AI) was alerted about the arrest of a man in March at the Kolkata airport with 600 blank boarding passes of the airline in his possession.



Link times of India

Lid off leave travel concession racket: Govt, PSU employees to face CBI heat-Times of India-22nd August 2013
NEW DELHI: The CBI has been called in by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to investigate a widespread racket in claims of leave travel concession (LTC) involving central government and public sector employees as well as travel agents.

The CBI, which was asked on August 16 by CVC to carry out a criminal investigation, is likely to question dozens of such employees. Large sums are said to have been siphoned out of the government by producing fake Air India tickets and boarding passes (the only airline that government and PSU employees are allowed to use for LTC).

A sizeable number are of the rank of under secretary and above. Most of them claimed to have travelled with their family to the extremities of the country — the northeast, Kerala and the Andamans. The racket, said sources, has been one of the worst kept secrets although there was no actionable evidence against it.

The Kolkata Police was the first to stumble upon the LTC racket in March this year when it detained a passenger at Kolkota airport with more than 600 blank boarding passes of Air India. He was to board a SpiceJet aircraft to Port Blair. On being interrogated, he claimed that he was to deliver it to someone in the Andamans. The surmise is that this someone in the Andamans was to fill up fictitious details of flights there on the blank boarding passes. An investigation by the police is underway, sources said.



Air India's vigilance division began an investigation after the airline was asked about the fake boarding passes. Initial inquiries by the airline confirmed that it was a fairly widespread practice among government employees to manipulate LTC by submitting forged boarding pass and tickets, and hugely inflating fares.

In March, the Rajya Sabha secretariat asked Air India for verification of seven tickets issued by a travel agency to secretariat employees on the Delhi-Kolkota-Port Blair sector. Air India reported back that the tickets and boarding passes were fabricated. "No such journey has been undertaken by the seven people," Air India said.

The fictitious tickets submitted to the RS secretariat turned out to be a crude job — they included a business class ticket, even though Air India has no business class seats to Port Blair. Some of the boarding passes had the same number, even same seat numbers. And each ticket was for Rs 1.35 lakh, although the fare on that particular day was nowhere near that amount.

Air India also carried out an internal investigation into another complaint, this one from the Ordnance Factory Board. From the Board's Jabalpur plant over 400 employees and their families ostensibly travelled to the northeast to avail LTC between 2006 and 2008. Under a special order of the government to promote tourism in northeast, even the lowest ranked government employees and their families can fly to northeast sector and claim airfare under LTC.

A ticket submitted by a Jabalpur employee was found to have been valued at an incredible Rs 2.11 lakh; it's hardly surprising that it turned out to be a forgery. While the e-tickets were definitely forged, it is still not clear how on many of these tickets people actually travelled.

It is suspected that some of these tickets may have been bought by cash by travel agents from Air India. And then they may have created forged e-tickets, showing higher fares. Whatever may be the case, the CBI is expected to investigate all the 400 families that travelled to northeast from Jabalpur, sources said.

Sources also said the LTC racket appears to be rampant across government departments, public sector units, and public sector banks.

It also appears that many officials submit forged boarding passes and e-tickets of travel between Delhi and Thiruvananthapuram, while they are actually travelling to Colombo or Singapore. In other words, on the basis of their LTC claims, employees are undertaking foreign trips, which this facility doesn't allow.

Link times of India news August 2013