Capt. T Praveen Keerthi, General Secretary of the Indian Commercial Pilots' Association, has opposed a proposal, pending with the Appointments Committee of Cabinet, for appointing Capt. Arvind Jagdishchandra Kathpalia as Operations Director of Air India. The Association's stand is that Capt. Kathpalia had "suppressed the facts from Air India Management of the FIR filed at Sahar police station of Mumbai and released on bail. The case is being heard at city's sessions court, Mumbai". Indianmandarins has learnt that the Govt may ignore the representation and go ahead with the PESB recommendation to appoint Capt Kathpalia as first Director (Operations) of Air India. According to sources, the Govt is of the opinion that the allegations against Kathpalia were found frivolous in a comprehensive internal inquiry. Indianmandarins has learnt since the judicial proceedings may take many more years to come up with its judgement, hence it may go by its internal inquiry report and get the appointment endorsed by the ACC shortly.