KOCHI: The Protector of Emigrants(POE), Kochi, L Adolfus was arrested by CBI on Monday in connection with nursing scam in which recruitment agencies recruited nurses for Kuwait Ministry Health by taking excess service charges from them.
CBI officials said that L Adolfus native of Kollam was arrested after he was continuing to help illegal agencies to conduct fake recruitment.
According to CBI officials, L Adolfus was arrested by CBI from his office in Kochi on Monday afternoon. "After the
case was registered against POE two months back, he continue to help some fake recruitment agencies. Few days ago a recruitment which had no proper license was permitted to conduct recruitment interview held a luxury hotel in Kundanoor. The recruitment held with the knowledge of Adolfus. Kerala police has registered a case. Since the accused continue to help the illegal recruitment agencies, we decided to arrest him,"CBI officials.
CBI officials said that they delayed the arrest after anticipatory bail petition of Uthup Varghese, proprietor of Al Zarafa Travels and Manpower Consultancy was pending at the court. "We required both together in our custody as part of the investigation. The court first denied the anticipatory bail petition of L Adolfus. Later Uthup Varghese also filed anticipatory bail which was also dismissed by the court. Since Uthup Varghese has escaped to Kuwait, we cannot afford to remain Adolfus free as there are possibilities of destruction of evidence and influencing the witnesses,"CBI officials said. Adolfus would be produced before the CBI court on Tuesday.
CBI has registered two cases against L Adolfus for helping some recruitment agencies to conduct recruitment
illegally. Similarly Enforcement Directorate (ED) also has registered case against Adolfus and other four accused on
money laundering charges. CBI in the investigation found that Al Zarafa Travels with the knowledge of L Adolfus
recruited 1200 nurses by charging Rs 19.5 lakhs instead of stipulated Rs 19,500. ED investigation revealed that Rs 85
crore was sent abroad through hawala channels while Rs 232 crores were collected by Al Zarafa from the nurses.