MUMBAI, Nov 6: The Supreme Court order absolving East West Airlines of harbouring terrorists comes exactly one week before the second anniversary of the murder of its founder, Thakiyudeen Wahid. The airline never really recovered after his death and by August 1996, the last of its aircraft was grounded.

Faisal Wahid, who succeeded his brother as chairman of the airline, is however still hopeful of regaining lost ground. ``Our liabilities amounting to Rs 150 crore are supported by guarantees,'' he told The Indian Express.

Faisal, who is now chairman of the airline, hopes that the favourable Supreme Court verdict will erase the stigma attached to the airline in the past few years. He however admitted that convincing the banks to lend him finance is quite a job. ``We are sure of our financial strength but to succeed, we need to have God on our side,'' he said. East West Airlines, India's first airline venture in the private sector, took off in 1992 and, with a fleet of 11 aircraft and a workforce of nearly 3000 people, emerged as the biggest competitor to the state-owned Indian Airlines.

After Thakiyudeen Wahid was gunned down in standard mafia style outside his office on November 13, 1995, the airline got embroiled in litigation with the lessors of its aircraft and had to suspend operations. Faisal admits that the promoters of East West were demoralised after the charge-sheets were filed in this case and the airline's image took a battering. ``We were unsure about our future and with our time taken up with legal matters, we could not concentrate on the airline's business,'' Faisal said.

Though there were always rumours surrounding the ownership of East West Airlines, things worsened after the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai.

Police investigations revealed that the Memon family, the prime suspects behind the blasts, fled the country on air tickets booked by one East West Travel and Tours. Since then, the Wahids have been insisting that their airline had nothing to do with the tainted agency.

Faisal believes that certain private airline operators were out to fix East West. ``One of them would get drunk at parties and threaten to send us packing to Kerala, to pick coconuts,'' he said. Faisal however admitted that no concrete evidence was available against any of them.

The Wahids are also sore that the killers of Thakiyudeen Wahid remain untraced. ``The police are just not interested in tracking down his killers because some well-known people are behind it,'' alleges Faisal. According to him, Thakiyudeen's widow is planning to move the courts for investigating the murder.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.