Nira Radia tried to influence Yashwant Sinha

Investigative agencies who are trying to piece together corporate lobbyist Nira Radia’s meteoritic rise within a short span, have stumbled upon shocking details of how she tried hard to get Rs12 crore waiver for a private airline ModiLuft.

The custom authorities had confiscated ModiLuft’s aircraft as it had failed to deposit Rs12 crore tax. ModiLuft did not deposit Rs12 crores collected from passengers during 1998-99 as inland and foreign travel tax.

The customs seized the aircraft parked at Delhi’s Palam Airport as company didn’t pay heed despite several notices sent to it.

Nira Radia who has been in the news these days due to the second generation mobile spectrum scam, had met several senior officials and some of the NDA ministers on behalf of ModiLuft seeking relief for the company.

Since she had failed to start her own Aviation company- Crown Air — as the government had declined to give her a licence, she was working for ModiLuft.

However, when the then commissioner of customs Krishan Kant refused to release the aircraft without payment, ModiLuft petitioned finance minister Yashwant Sinha claiming that the demand of Rs12 crore is unjustified.

Sinha referred the matter to the then law minister Ram Jethmalani for certain clarifications. But the Customs department maintained that ModiLuft has no merit in its plea and ignored the advice of the law ministry. It was at this juncture that  Nira Radia stepped in.

When contacted, Krishan Kant confirmed to the DNA, “she came to see me. But I declined  to meet her and sent a word that she should meet the chief commissioner, customs KL Verma. I learnt later that she met Mr Verma”.

Verma confirmed meeting her. But said that he explained to her the difficulties in releasing the aircraft without payment of duty. It was explained that the government had authorised private airlines to collect this tax from passengers on behalf of the government and they are expected to deposit the same with the commissioner, air cargo customs based in Delhi. But instead of depositing it, the companies resorted to using this money to meet their internal requirements.

However, she refused to give in and fresh representations were made by ModiLuft, which was a joint venture company between the RK Modi group and Lufthansa. The matter  was referred again to the finance ministry as the legal opinion was not explicit.

When contacted Yashwant Sinha affirmed that he had indeed been approached.

“I did not yield even a bit despite tremendous pressure brought on me,” he added, refusing to name colleagues or the kind of pressure brought on him.