Six senior officials of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) have been suspended for their involvement irregularities in awarding ground handling projects at several airports.

The aviation ministry ordered suspensions after the CBI found the officials guilty of grave irregularities in awarding ground handling services contract for airports in Coimbatore, Calicut, Mangalore, Tiruchi and Trivandrum. The official allegedly favoured Bhadra International India Ltd while awarding the contract.

A spokesperson for civil aviation ministry said, "The CBI enquiry report, which had asked AAI to take action against the officials, came on June 14, 2012. Actions were taken by the aviation minister after it came to his notice."

The officials who have been suspended by the ministry are commercial executive director LL Krishnan, GM Ravi Verma, DGM (finance) RL Saran, additional GM (commercial) S Basu, DGM (operations) Arun Mehan, and DGM (operations) PK Chadha.

Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has also ordered filing of the FIR against Prem Bajaj, managing director of the suspect company, and retired EDs AK Dubey and Mr. Narayanan for their alleged acts of forgery, criminal breach of trust, and corruption. It may be noted here that Narayanan was appointed by Bhadra International India as its vice president after his retirement from his job at AAI.