A director of the now defunct East-West Airlines (India) was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment last week for a fraudulent1990s fuel deal. Faisal Wahid was the airline's director of marketing and operations and faced Mumbai's Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) criminal court on December 20, 2022.

East-West Airlines (not to be confused with the also now defunct Australian carrier of the same name - East-West Airlines (Australia) - or start-up East West Airlines (Syrian Arab Republic) in Syria) commenced domestic air passenger operations in 1992, only to fold in 1996. The airline gained a degree of notoriety after its managing director, Thakiyudeen Wahid, was murdered by gunmen near East-West's Mumbai office in 1995.

Twenty-six years after the airline's demise, the CBI Court found Faisal and a Vijaya Bank official guilty of defrauding the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd of INR17.3 million rupees (USD209,432) using fraudulent drafts of demand. The racket involved faxing copies of the demand drafts to the oil company, which then provided the fuel. East-West then cancelled the order and never provided the oil company with the original demand draft, per the proper process. According to the court, this occurred five times with the cooperation of a bank official, Jayanand Shetty, who did not debit the fuel cost from the airline's accounts.

Following a complaint from the Indian Oil Corporation to the CBI's economic crimes division, investigators charged eight East-West Airlines employees and Shetty with fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud in a case that first appeared before the courts in 2001. Since then, four defendants have died, including the airline's deputy managing director. Three more were acquitted last week, leaving just Faisal and the bank official to face penalties.

Judge SU Wadgaonkar said Faisal played a relatively minor part in the fraud, with the main accused, Shihabuddin Wahid, having died during the twenty-one-year court case. In addition to the custodial sentence, Faisal received a fine of INR650,000 (USD7,869). Wadgaonkar also fined the airline INR50,000 (USD605). The bank official was fined and jailed for one year, however, the court released both men on bail pending an appeal to India's High Court.