The CBI, India's top detective agency, has filed a charge sheet against the former Air India boss, Arvind Jadhav, and six others, including SAP India and IBM India, for breaking the law and taking bribes.

The CBI started the case after the anti-corruption watchdog, CVC found irregularities. According to a report by the Times of India Air India chose SAP and IBM's software without a proper bidding process.

At the time, Air India was run by the government and had to get the nod from the Civil Aviation Ministry for any big purchase. But the CVC said Air India didn't get this approval even though it showed its plan to the top brass. Air India was sold to the Tata Group in 2022.

The charge sheet accuses the former Air India chief and the others of criminal conspiracy and corruption, after six years of digging. The CVC also claimed that Air India gave the contract to SAP and IBM even though it was already using Oracle's software.

Forrester top analyst Biswajeet Mahapatra said that based on the CBI report Air India didn't follow the rules and went with SAP and IBM.

“But not following the rules would have led to a one-man show, which for a project of that size would be against the law. It's not clear if Air India found Oracle lacking in the features and services they wanted or why they went with SAP without a fair contest," he said.

The scandal draws attention to the tricky and messy government buying processes, which can make it hard for the agencies to stick to them. "Government buying processes must find the right balance between meeting the business needs quickly and following the proper steps. It is even more true for sectors where public sector firms compete with more speedy private sector players – such as airlines, telecom, banking, oil and gas, utilities and more," said Mahapatra.

Pareekh Consulting Pareekh Jain said public sector firms need to make a solid case and get the right approvals before spending money and should have a clear selection and bidding process to avoid this kind of mess.

While SAP and IBM have a big presence in India, the ongoing probe is unlikely to affect their business.

"As far as the impact on SAP and IBM is concerned – it should not bother their operations in any way unless they did something wrong. Global firms working in India must follow both the local rules and the standards set by their parent countries," said Mahapatra.