Bhubaneswar, May 2: A jewellery shop owner, who had lodged a fraud complaint against Air Odisha Aviation Pvt Ltd, today recorded his statement before Khandagiri police.

The officials of the private airlines, too, recorded their statement.

Jewellery shop owner Mitesh Dinesh Khimji had lodged a complaint in the court of sub-divisional judicial magistrate April 26, accusing the private airlines of not transferring 40 per cent of shares in lieu of Rs 1.5 crore he had invested in the venture.

The court had asked the police to probe into the case.

Air Odisha had started intra-state flight operations in January from Biju Patnaik International Airport.

At present, it is operating flights from Bhubaneswar to Rourkela, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda and Jeypore.

Khimji's lawyer Gyana Ranjan Mohanty said an agreement had been executed between Air Odisha and the Khimjis in September 2015 for purchase of 40 per cent shares.

"However, the company did not complete the necessary formalities for transfer of the share even after receiving the money," said Mohanty.

He said: "According to the agreement, all banking transactions of the company should have been conducted through an account jointly operated by my client and the airline, and the revenue generated from the air service, including government subsidy, should have been deposited in the joint account."

"But, my client found that the office-bearer of the private airlines was giving their own bank account number for monetary transactions," Mohanty added.

Air Odisha founder Santosh Pani, however, denied all the allegations.

"We have already provided him the share certificate, but the process of transfer is taking time as it involves a lot of paper work. Khimjis wanted to be a part of the board of directors, which at present is not possible without security clearance. They had also served us a legal notice a week ago, and we asked them to discuss the matter, but they did not appear," said Pani.

In March, a similar complaint had been filed against the private airlines by Sandeep Ray, son of former Union minister and Rourkela MLA Dilip Ray.

Sandeep had alleged that despite investing Rs 80 lakh in the company in 2015, it returned him only Rs 40 lakh.