Having spent over 120 days behind bars straight on his arrival from Abu Dhabi, the conditional bail granted by the Kerala High Court must have come as a relief to Mailakkattu Uthup Varghese, the key accused in the multi-crore nurses recruitment scam.
As someone who began his career as a small-time insurance agent at Puthupally, Uthup’s life underwent a complete turnaround when he resigned from his job with an Abu Dhabi-based firm in 2006 and took to the business of overseas recruitment.
Cashing in on the influx of skilled nurses into West Asia, the business brought him good fortunes. Also growing with his business were allegations of his criminal behaviour. The Kottayam East Police registered a case of murder attempt against him.
Likewise, the CBI registered a case against him and seven others in March 2015 on finding that Al Zarafa Travels and Manpower Consultants, run by Uthup, had charged ₹19.5 lakh as service charge from nursing recruits instead of ₹19,500 recommended by the Ministry of Overseas Affairs.
He even featured in a wanted list by the Interpol, which issued a red-corner notice against him and apprehended him once in Abu Dhabi.
The mystery over his detention, however, continued with Uthup consistently denying the CBI’s version of his house arrest and imminent extradition to India. This uncertainty finally came to an end on March 29 this year, when he landed at the airport here on a directive by the High Court.
According to the chargesheet by the CBI, Al Zarafa Travels and Man Power Consultants, run by Uthup, had recruited over 1,200 nurses for the Ministry of Health, Kuwait, and collected over ₹117 crore between December 29, 2014, and March 25, 2015. Each candidate was promised a salary of 681 to 705 Kuwait Dinars per month and blank cheques, certificates or other valuable securities were collected from those who failed to pay the fees.
To cover up the usurious sums collected as fees, the agency also made bogus entries in the office register. Of the total money collected this way, about ₹97 crore was allegedly smuggled out to Abu Dhabi in collusion with two forex agents, Suresh Babu and Abdul Nazeer.
Besides Uthup and the two forex agents, his wife, Susan; Jossi and Pradeep K.S., two employees of Al Zarafa; and Lawrence Adolphus, the then Protector of Emigrants, Kochi, have been arraigned as accused in the case. 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.
