KOCHI: After nearly two years of investigation, the chargesheet has been filed against alleged scamsters who extracted hefty amounts as service fees from nurses from Kerala for jobs in the Kuwaiti Ministry of Health. The alleged scamsters include the state’s Protector of Emigrants.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday filed the charge-sheet in the multi-crore recruitment scam involving the Protector of Emigrants and Al Zarafa Travels and Manpower Consultants in CBI Court-III in Ernakulam.
It named eight accused: Lawrence Adolphus, Protector of Emigrants, Kochi; Al Zarafa Travels and Manpower Consultants Pvt Ltd; its owner Mailakkattu Uthup Varghese and wife Susan, Jossi and Pradeep K S, both employees of Al Zarafa; V S Suresh Babu, owner of Suresh Forex Kottayam; and K Abdul Nasser, owner of Malabar Foreign Exchange, Kochi.
The case was registered by CBI in March 30, 2015 after it was found that recruitment agencies including Al Zarafa recruited nurses for the Kuwaiti Ministry of Health, charging each of them Rs 19.5 lakh as service fee instead of the mandated Rs 19,500.
The eight accused now face charges under Sections 120B, 384, 420 of the Indian Penal Code, Section 13(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 24 and 25 of
the Emigration Act.
This is only one of the four cases registered against various recruitment agencies in Kerala in 2015. CBI filed a chargesheet against J K International Manpower Consultants, Kochi last month. In two more cases, CBI has yet to obtain sanction for prosecution in two cases against Adolphus from the Ministry of External Affairs.
As per the chargesheet, here’s what the eight accused allegedly did in the scam:
Lawrence Adolphus, Protector of Emigrants
As Protecter of Emigrants, he ought to have taken action against the consultancy firm when it was brought to his notice that the nurses were being fleeced. He not only did not take action despite complaints, he allegedly permitted the agencies to continue with fraudulent activities, the CBI charge-sheet says.
Al Zarafa Travels and Manpower Consultants
Al Zarafa had a contract with a Kuwait-based agency to recruit 1200 nurses for the Ministry of Health, Kuwait. The firm allegedly extracted service fees from the nurses that were far in excess of what was legally allowed -- in fact 100 times more. The CBI chargesheet found that the accused persons garnered more than Rs 100 crore by way of service fees from the nurses.
Mailakkattu Uthup Verghese, owner of Al Zarafa
Uthup Verghese still lives in Abu Dhabi, dodging efforts by CBI to have him arrested with the assistance of Interpol, which has put out a lookout notice for him. As per the charge-sheet filed today, the company extorted money and extracted certificates and valuable securities from the poor nurses who could not pay the recruitment fees they demanded.
Susan Thomas, wife of Uthup Varghese
The wife of Varghese has been arraigned as one of the eight accused because she held the post of chairperson of Al Zarafa.
V S Suresh and Abdul Nasser, forex agents
A major portion of the scam money was allegedly sent to Kuwait and Dubai through hawala channels with the assistance of these two forex agents. Suresh Babu was the owner of Suresh Forex in Kottayam and K Abdul Nasser ran Malabar Foreign Exchange in Kochi
Jossi and K S Pradeep, employees of Al Zarafa
Jossi and Pradeep headed Al Zarafa’s operations in Kochi.