THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kannur International Airport Limited (KIAL) managing director V. Thulasidas has resigned from the post in view of the CBI probe into the major deals in Air India while he was serving as chairman and managing director. Mr. Thulasidas submitted his resignation letter a couple of days back and it was accepted by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday. “Thulasidas cited that since the CBI is probing into certain deals at AI while he was heading the national carrier, it was morally improper for him to continue in the post and hence he wished to quit. The government welcomed his decision and accepted the resignation," the chief minister's private secretary Mr. M.V. Jayarajan told DC.
He also resigned from the post of executive director, Rajiv Gandhi Academy for Aviation Technology. Meanwhile, sources said that the CBI was likely to quiz him in connection with the cases pertaining to the purchase of 111 aircraft for Rs 70,000 crore as well as irregularities in the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines. Anticipating this, he decided to quit and the government accepted it without a second thought. His decision may even derail the government's plans to commission Kannur airport by this September. The government is yet to finalise a replacement for Mr Thulasidas.
It was for the second time that Mr Thulasidas resigned from the KIAL managing director post. He was posted as the first MD of KIAL. He initially offered to quit in September 2012 following controversies over the KIAL signing a consultancy agreement with a blacklisted firm STUP Consultants. The government however, neither accepted nor rejected the resignation and hence Mr Thulasidas continued in the post. He later resigned in April 2013 citing that he got a fresh foreign assignment. A retired IAS officer, Mr Thulasidas is also director - aviation expert with Oman Air.
