KOCHI: The city police probing the nurses’ recruitment scam have been surprised by how meticulously accused Feroz Khan, 42, of Nettoor plotted the crime, which came to light when two nurses filed a complaint after getting stranded in the UAE without work for two months.
In fact, Feroz took the city police as well as the Protector of Emigrants (PoE) for a ride by carrying out the fraud right under their noses after getting bail in a case registered against him for running a similar recruitment scam in the city two years ago.
It was in 2018 that Feroz was first arrested by the North police station for running an agency, ‘Key Dot’, in the city which allegedly duped a couple of nurses of money after promising them jobs in West Asia.
“After coming out on bail, he started a new agency, ‘Take Off’, by setting up a posh office. He never openly conducted recruitment and ran the office as a travel agency offering air tickets, tourist visa processing facility and similar packages. Recruitment was his undercover operation,” said North CI Pradeep Kumar V S.
He said in the previous case too, Feroz ran the firm as a travel agency to stay under the radar of the office of PoE and the police. “A majority of illegal recruitment agencies function as travel agencies offering airline tickets and tourist packages. People need to be careful as such agencies cannot carry out recruitment,” the officer said.
Though the police moved the court seeking custody of both Feroz and his aide Sathar, 50, a native of Kompanamuri in Cherthala, for detailed questioning, a decision was postponed after both Feroz and Sathar tested positive for Covid at the sub-jail where they have been placed in remand.
This time, police have made getting bail tough for Feroz and have charged him under IPC Section 370.
“We have booked him under anti-human trafficking law apart from Section 24 of the Emigration Act. We suspect this scam to be part of a bigger plot and will question him in detail after he recovers,” an officer said.