Chief Minister’s ‘Sponsored’ Trip: Documents Reveal Payment Made by Chipson Aviation

Thiruvananthapuram: More details have emerged about the payment made by a helicopter company that had applied to the government for renewal of its rental contract for Chief Minister V D Satheesan’s chartered flight to Malappuram. Chipson company paid Rs 19,88,595 for Satheesan’s travel on a Embraer Phenom 100 aircraft operated by the Kelachandra Group. Invoice documents related to the payment have surfaced.

The disclosure that Chipson Aviation, which had provided a helicopter to the Kerala government, sponsored the flight has led to allegations of a serious offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The allegation is that accepting the company’s benefit before the government took a decision on its application to renew the helicopter rental contract amounts to bribery.

The helicopter had been hired by the previous LDF government for use during emergencies. It was mainly operated as an air ambulance for organ donation-related services. The contract was initially for three years, with a provision to extend it by another two years.

Accordingly, the state police chief first wrote to the government on June 8 seeking an extension of the contract. Another letter was submitted last Friday. Although the first letter was forwarded to the Finance Department, no decision had been taken. It was while the application for the new contract was under the Chief Minister’s consideration that Satheesan used a chartered flight sponsored by the company to visit the homes of people who died in the rain-related disaster.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Satheesan said he had travelled on sponsorship from private individuals and would continue to do so. He was responding to questions from journalists about the sponsor of the chartered flight used for his trip to Malappuram.

“Why should the details of the sponsor be disclosed? The trip was not made in secret. Not a single rupee of government money was used. The media would report that the Chief Minister did not visit even after six people died. I had to go there,” Satheesan said.

He said the chartered flight was used to reach Malappuram quickly after attending the Sree Narayana Guru Samadhi observance, without directly responding to questions about the sponsor.