Research by aviation enthusiasts based in India and the UK points out that the vintage aircraft has re-emerged on records of the United Kingdom civil aviation register as belonging to a mysterious company in the Channel Islands.

The single-seat fighter aircraft, gifted to the Nizam of Hyderabad by the British Empire in 1941 for sponsoring two RAF squadrons, was rediscovered at PDA College in Gulbarga by an Indian expert in 2002. While the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Indian collectors dilly-dallied over procuring the aircraft, it disappeared from the college campus — apparently picked up by a millionaire British aircraft collector. The plane was valued at over Rs 7 crore in the antiques market. Police investigations hit a wall as they could not trace Girish Naidu, a Bangalore-based scrap dealer who brokered the deal.

However, aviation enthusiasts took up the hunt and traced the manufacturing number of the Bf 109 through photographs taken before it was stolen. Using the markings and registration numbers on the aircraft, England-based expert Lynn Ritger found that it belonged to German pilot Xavier Ray who crash-landed during a raid on the outskirts of London in 1940 after engine failure.

The breakthrough came early this year, when experts discovered an entry in the UK civil aviation registry in December 2005 matching to the stolen Messerchmitt.

“The manufacturer and construction number of G-CDTI (the new entry) is the same one traced by Ritger to the Gulbarga aircraft. As two aircrafts cannot have the same construction number, it is the missing Bf 109,” Jagan Pillarsetti, whose website www.warbirdsofindia.com, keeps a track of vintage aircraft in the country, told The Indian Express.

Ritger, a Bf 109 historian, also confirmed the identity of the aircraft.

“The WNr 4034 (manufacturing number of the Bf 109) was indeed registered on the civil register as G-CDTI and it appears to be in Europe,” Ritger confirmed. The aircraft has been registered to Rare Aero Ltd, based in Jersey, Channel Islands.

Efforts to trace the owners of Rare Aero Ltd have been unsuccessful. The buzz in international aviation forums is that Guy Black, a millionaire British aircraft collector who was rumored to have bought the aircraft in 2002, owns the company.

However, Black denies that he owns the plane. “There are all sorts of rumors about me but I do not own the company. I have heard about the aircraft and am very interested in buying it,” he told The Indian Express over the phone from England.

The Corps of Detectives (CoD) of the Karnataka police, which is investigating the case, is unaware that the aircraft had been registered in Europe. “ Investigations are still on but we cannot trace the main accused in the case. We know that the plane was taken out of the country but do not know where it is,” says B K Singh, SP (Special investigations), Corps of Detectives, Karnataka Police.