New Delhi, Feb 14 (IANS) IPO-bound Skyways Air Services Ltd, a Delhi-based air freight forwarding and logistics company, is facing an FIR -- filed with the Delhi Wing of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) by UK-based PG Paper Company Limited – over an alleged "large-scale fraud" to the tune of Rs 480 crore involving nine firms/persons (including Skyways Air Services Ltd).

The FIR with EOW Delhi, a copy of which was accessed by IANS, states that the UK-based firm filed the complaint against nine accused persons and companies (including Skyways Air Services) “through their directors and key managerial persons for commission of offences under the Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita, 2023 (BNS), The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA), and The Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA).

According to the complaint, the subsidiaries of the Skyways Group, "most prominently Accused No. 2 and 3 (Brace Port Logistics Ltd and Skyways Airways Ltd), acted through their respective Directors and played a central role as the primary beneficiaries of the present fraud and misconduct".

PG Paper Company Limited is involved in the international trade and distribution of paper and packaging products, and operates through cross-trade shipments and “engaged RPK Consultants, New Delhi, for back-office support and real-time logistics coordination”.

“All the Accused Companies and their Directors were introduced to the Complainant Company by Accused No. 1, Mr. Lokesh Chopra, then employed through RPK Consultants as Global Freight Procurement Manager of PG Paper,” the FIR states.

On his recommendation, the said companies were onboarded as freight forwarding vendors.

Chopra, occupying a position of trust and tasked with securing competitive freight rates, instead “breached his fiduciary duty and, in active collusion with the Accused Companies and their Directors, orchestrated a large-scale fraud against the Complainant causing huge loss of business to the tune of Rs. 4,80,00,00,000 approximately (Rupees Four Hundred Eighty Crores approx.),” the FIR mentions.

Skyways Air Services Ltd, which has filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to raise funds through an IPO, said in a statement to IANS that the “said FIR was not in existence as on the date of the DRHP”.

“Accordingly, the details of the same will be included in the Red Herring Prospectus,” said the company.

Skyways Air Services Ltd said this "legal matter is pending with the relevant authority".

“Further, Company is exploring its legal remedies, and the matter is sub judice,” the company added.

Skyways Air Services Ltd has already undertaken a Pre-IPO placement of 40,19,326 equity shares of face value of Rs 10 each at a price of Rs 120 per equity share aggregating to Rs 4,823.19 lakhs on August 6, 2025 and the size of the fresh issue will be accordingly reduced, it informed.

According to PG Paper Company Limited, the case allegedly “concerns a deliberate and systematic scheme orchestrated to defraud the Company by the Accused No. 1 (Mr. Lokesh Chopra) in connivance with the directors and other key managerial persons of the Accused Companies”.

“This scheme involved collusion, fraud, misrepresentation, bribery, embezzlement, anti-competitive practices, and deliberate destruction of evidence,” it further alleged.

“These Directors, in connivance with one another and with Accused No. 1, deliberately manipulated shipment bookings, diverted business opportunities, and ensured that the Complainant Company was charged disproportionately higher rates for services that could have been procured at far lower and commercially reasonable costs, resulting in substantial losses to the Complainant Company,” the UK-based firm alleged.

--IANS

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