The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday registered a first information report in the Kuwait nurses’ recruitment scam and arraigned Protector of Emigrants L. Adolfus, a native of Kollam, as the key accused.
The FIR, submitted at the CBI court here, also named the Al Zarafa Travel and Manpower Consultants as the second accused in the case.
As part of the probe, the sleuths also raided the office of the Protector of Emigrants (PoE) at Market Road in Kochi, office of the recruitment agency at Church Landing Road, residence of L. Adolfus in Kollam, and the house of Uthup Varghese, proprietor of the agency, at Puthupally.
During the raid, the sleuths recovered some crucial documents, including agreements, signed by nurses.
Role of PoE
“Investigation so far pointed to the PoE working hand in glove with the recruitment agency instead of protecting the interests of those recruited. We suspect that the official might have benefitted from helping the agency though we are yet to get any solid evidence,” said a CBI official.
The official said PoE rules stipulated the agency to charge only Rs.19,500 from each candidate as service fee. However, it levied service charges of around Rs.19.5 lakh without giving receipts to the candidates.
The agency, which was contracted to recruit 1,200 nurses for the Kuwait Health Ministry, began screening candidates in December last and officials from Kuwait had attended interviews held at a hotel in Ernakulam.
Affidavit
The CBI also found that the agency insisted on the candidates giving affidavit stating that the recruitment procedures were completed as per Indian laws.
Further, the agency had failed to submit to the PoE the monthly update on the details of people going abroad making use of its services.
Even though several complaints had been filed against the travel agency with the PoE, the official did not act and even sent copies of the complaints to the agency, the CBI official said.
The accused have been booked under Sections 13(1)(d) in the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, IPC Section 120 (b) for criminal conspiracy, Section 420 for cheating, and Sections 24 and 25 of the Emigration Act.
Cash seized
Earlier, income tax officials had raided the travel agency office and seized an amount of Rs.4.7 crore.
Rs.19.5 lakh levied as service fee from candidates
Official did not act on complaints against agency
