A safety certificate for sale in Chennai: CBI arrests DGCA officer in Rs 2.5 lakh bribe case

The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested a deputy director of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation posted in Chennai, together with the director of a private air-training organisation, in an alleged bribery case involving aircraft airworthiness certification.

The officer, identified in reports as Sushil Kumar Garg, a deputy director for airworthiness in Chennai, is accused of demanding and accepting Rs 2.5 lakh in return for an undue favour connected with certification for aircraft operated by Ekvi Air Training Organisation Pvt Ltd. Its director, Sachin Keshav Bhane, was also arrested. Both men are accused, not convicted, and the allegations remain subject to investigation and court proceedings.

Airworthiness certification is not a routine stamp. It is the regulatory check meant to establish that an aircraft meets prescribed technical and safety standards before it is allowed to fly. When that check itself becomes the subject of a bribe allegation, the question is no longer only about one payment. It is about whether a safety gate can be held, delayed or opened by money.

Reports of the case say the agency acted after receiving information about a demand for illegal gratification, registered a case naming the officer, the company director, the firm and others, and arrested the two men in Tamil Nadu after the alleged transaction. Investigators are examining documents and whether other people were involved, and whether the payment was isolated or part of a wider arrangement around aviation approvals. The officer was expected to be taken to New Delhi for further questioning under transit remand.

This is also not presented as a lone shadow over the regulator this year. Reports note a separate DGCA-linked bribery arrest in April concerning approvals connected with drone imports, involving a different senior airworthiness official in New Delhi. Two allegations in the same regulatory family, in the same year, demand more than a statement that an investigation is under way.

For passengers, trainees and crew, trust in certification is invisible until it fails. A system that asks the public to trust an aircraft must be able to show that its own house is clean: published timelines, recorded decisions, rotation of inspecting officers and swift disclosure when an official is arrested. The CBI case will be decided in court. The DGCA's credibility will be decided by what it changes before the verdict arrives.