The Central Bureau of Investigation unearthed a well-organised racket of corruption, forgery and bribery in the office of the Protector of Emigrants (POE), Chennai, last month, but since 2006 it has registered cases of organised corruption by officials of the POE in Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Chandigarh.
Senior CBI officials told The Hindu on Friday that in almost all the cases, against POE officers emigration clearance was given on the basis of forged and fabricated documents., and poor labourers were being exploited by corrupt officials and recruiting agents. The then CBI Director, P.C. Sharma, had brought this up, in a December 12, 2002 letter to the Secretary, Ministry of Labour. Last month, the CBI registered a case against R. Sekar, Protector of Emigrants, Chennai, and two others — chairman of a Chennai-based trust D. Ravindra Babu and a service agent for emigration Anwar Hussain — under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, and Section 120-B for alleged criminal conspiracy.
The POE again hit the headlines when its Delhi chief J. N. Panda committed suicide in his native place in Orissa after gunning down his family members. The CBI searched the houses and offices of the POE, the service agent for emigration and other staff members in Chennai and seized Rs. 2.03 crore in cash and documents, which are being scrutinized for further investigation.
The probe revealed that an average of 300 emigration clearances were being issued by the POE, Chennai, every day, and the bribe amounted to Rs. 3 lakh. The bribe was not directly collected by the POE and his officials from candidates or agents, but passed on through select recruiting agents. The accounts of bribe to be paid a month for the total number of clearance made by the POE were maintained by a couple of recruiting agents to whom other agents were asked to make payments. For the POE officials in Delhi and other places, the bribe ranging from Rs. 2 lakh to Rs. 3 lakh a month was sent to their native places through domestic hawala channels, CBI sources said. The amount, collected by the POE, Chennai, alone amounted to Rs. 8.5 crore in the past one-and-a-half years.
The CBI seized cash and documents pertaining to moveable and immovable property of the accused to the tune of Rs. 4.3 crore. Established to protect the interests of emigrant labour, the POE processes applications from workers seeking employment in West Asian countries. the Gulf countries , Saudi Arabia and other West Asian nations. A change in the policy, effected three-four years ago, stipulated that certain documents from the employer are a must for emigration clearance. The aim is to make sure that the workers are not cheated by recruitment agencies by ensuring documentation from the employer or their representatives. CBI sources said that hardly any employer in Saudi Arabia or Gulf countries ever furnishes such documents and recruitment agents take recourse to forgery.
Interestingly, more than 100 fake stamps were recovered during searches in Chennai. Similarly, evidence of large-scale “forgery industry” came to light during the investigation of the cases registered in Hyderabad, Chandigarh and Thiruvananthapuram. Hardly any applicant ever gets any original document from the employers, the sources said.
Senior CBI officials said innocent labourers seeking employment abroad were left with no option but to submit forged documents. “All this is common knowledge among POE officials who demand bribes for emigration clearance on the basis of such forged documents.” The scale of organised corruption is so large that there is a vested interest in continuation of this policy, they said. While stressing the need for a total relook at the entire system of working of the Protectorate of Emigrants, the CBI has suggested that it only regulate recruitment agencies and the system of giving individual emigration clearance be done away with.
