KOCHI: Following the arrest of an Afghan national who was working at the highly sensitive Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL), where India’s first Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) is being built, the police found that systematic background checks were not carried out on migrant workers employed by contractors. Though the espionage angle was ruled out on the basis of the preliminary investigation into the incident, the police on Thursday sought the custody of Afghan Idgul alias Abbas Khan, 24, at the Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate Court for interrogation.
Despite the theft of 20 computer components from the IAC in 2019, which led to the arrest of two non-Keralite workers by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), CSL authorities are not carrying out proper background checks on contract workers, the police said. “The authorities at the shipyard accept the police verification certificate, which may be authentic or fake, to allow the workers brought by the contractors. In this case, the Aadhaar card presented by the Afghanistan national was accepted to allow him to work inside the shipyard, which is a security-sensitive place as India’s first IAC is being built here. A verification of the Aadhaar card would have revealed his true nationality as his father and mother are still in Afghanistan,” said an officer part of the probe team.
City Police Commissioner C H Nagaraju said that the accused used a forged school transfer certificate to get an Aadhaar card from Assam. “He came to India from Afghanistan on a visa two to three years ago. His mother was born and brought up in Assam before she left for Afghanistan. He managed to get an Aadhaar card awfter presenting a fake school certificate at Assam.
Later, he came to Kochi and was employed by a CSL contractor. A proper background check of employees is essential to prevent such incidents. Thousands of workers enter CSL on a daily basis. We could not find any espionage angle in the case. Further details will emerge during the interrogation,” he said.
Meanwhile, CSL officials maintained that no security breach had occurred on their part. They claim that the company is not behind the Police Verification Certificate or the Aadhaar given to the arrested person. “Our system is foolproof. How can CSL take the blame for an Afghan national who duped all agencies and managed to get an Aadhaar card? We have thousands of workers entering the CSL compound for work on a daily basis. We were the first to find out about this person and report the matter to the police,” an official said.
When asked if the details of the accused’s family members as per the Aadhaar card had been independently verified, CSL officials said they cannot disclose such details since a police probe is underway. “This question has to be posed to the police who are conducting the probe. We were the complainants,” an official said.
The police also maintain that the presence of a person with a fake identity was detected following a tip-off received by CISF personnel from a co-worker in June this year. “One of the co-workers informed CISF that the accused has submitted fake identity details. When CSL started document verification, the accused went absconding, which led them to lodge a police complaint. It was as a result of the detailed probe that the nationality of the person came out and we arrested him from Kolkata,” an official added.