KOCHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday filed chargesheet in a multi-crore recruitment scam involving the Protector of Emigrants (PoE) and a travel agency, two years after taking up the case.
Chargesheet was filed in the CBI Court here against PoE, Kochi, Lawrence Adolphus and Al Zarafa Travels and Manpower Consultants, which recruited nurses from Kerala for the Ministry of Health, Kuwait, by charging exorbitant service fees.
The other accused in the case are Al Zarafa Travels owner and Puthuppally-native Mailakkattu Uthup Varghese; Jossi and Pradeep K S, employees of Al Zarafa; V S Suresh Babu, owner of Suresh Forex; K Abdul Nasser of Malabar Foreign Exchange and Susan Thomas, wife of Uthup Varghese.
Offences were charged against them under Sections 120B, 384 and 420 of the IPC; Section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 24 and 25 of the Emigration Act.
The CBI has been trying to arrest Uthup Varghese, who is currently residing in Abu Dhabi, with assistance of the Interpol.
The agency filed case against the accused on March 30, 2015, for recruiting nurses in violation of the norms. The firm allegedly collected `19.5 lakh from each candidate in fees, much higher than the prescribed fees of Rs 19,500.
As per the chargesheet, the company ‘extorted’ money and valuable documents through corrupt means from candidates who failed to pay the fees.
Al Zarafa carried out the recruitment under a contract with a Kuwait-based agency, for recruiting 1,200 nurses for the Ministry of Health, Kuwait.
The investigation revealed that the agency garnered more than Rs 100 crore in the form of fees from the candidates, and sent a major portion of the amount to Kuwait and Dubai through ‘hawala’ channel with the assistance of Suresh and Abdul Nasser. The charge against Adolphus is that he failed to take action against the recruitment agencies, in spite of complaints, and allowed them to continue with the fraudulent activities.
The CBI, which had registered three more cases against recruitment agencies in 2015, filed chargesheet against Kochi-based JK International Manpower Consultants last month. In two cases, the agency is yet to obtain prosecution sanction against Adolphus, from the Ministry of External Affairs.