Delhi Police hot on fake marksheets’ trail

It appears that in these four cases,which were brought to the notice of the police by aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA),forged documents were procured around the same time,a senior police official said.

“All these cases were reported in 2010-end. None of the four candidates managed to clear the tests till 2009 despite repeated attempts,” a senior police official said.

Sources said they believe that there was a “channel of people” who helped the pilots obtain the fake marksheets.

“One of the arrested pilot has identified the tout while the other has not told us anything,” the official said.

Asked if DGCA officials were under the scanner,the official said they are investigating all angles and “definitely we will have to look into why no red flag was raised on this earlier.”

However,the official said,nothing had come out against DGCA officials as of now.

Two pilots arrested in the Capital for obtaining flying licences by allegedly forging marksheets are believed to have paid touts Rs 10-12 lakh each.

The police arrested Parminder Kaur Gulati (38) of Indigo and Jitender Kishen Verma (46) of Air India last week.

As the police widened its probe to nail the touts,they started looking for the other two absconding pilots Meenakshi Sehgal of Indigo and Swaran Singh Talwar of MDLR – against whom the DGCA has lodged complaints.

A senior police official said they were trying to identify the touts from whom the pilots allegedly procured the fake marksheets. “They are believed have paid something around Rs 10-12 lakh. We are investigating this,” the official said.

In the wake of the fake pilot scare,licenses of 3,000 to 4,000 pilots are being scrutinised by the DGCA,according to Civil Aviation secretary Nasim Zaidi.