Thaindian News

Jaipur, March 23 (IANS) More arrests are likely for allegedly granting fake liceses to unqualified pilots, sources in Rajasthan’s anti-corruption bureau (ACP) said Wednesday.

SpiceJet pilots Anoop Choudhary and Amit Mundara were arrested by the ACB two days ago. It has now emerged that more pilots are involved in obtaining fake flying training hours certificates from two flying schools in Rajasthan and Haryana, ACB officials told IANS.

On the basis of these certificates, at least 14 pilots procured commercial pilot liceses (CPLs) from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), officials allege.

“We have finished investigation into the role of three pilots working with a private airline. Evidence with us clearly suggests that these pilots got CPLs fraudulently by exaggerating their flying training hours,” said an ACB official.

For getting a CPL, a pilot needs 200 hours of flying training. The accused pilots faked training hours in connivance with the chief flying instructors of the Rajasthan Flying School in Jaipur and the Hisar Flying School in Haryana, the official added.

The only aircraft available with the Rajasthan State Flying School was under maintenance and was not being used for training. Despite that, its chief flying instructor, Mohindra Kumar, allegedly faked the flight training log books and issued certificates to the aspirants.

He added that documents related to six more pilots are being examined after preliminary investigation implicated them.

The Rajasthan ACB played a whistleblower’s role when it claimed nearly four months ago that there were nationwide rackets involved in preparing fake documents for securing CPLs.

The scam surfaced last year when Nidhi Vashishta of Bahadurgarh in Haryana complained to ACB. She had enrolled for the commercial flying pilot course at the Rajasthan State Flying School in July 2006.

She was trained only for 22 hours but the instructor associated with the flying school recorded 169 hours in their record and sent it to DGCA.

The officer said the flight training was to take place in the air space between Jaipur and Hisar.

Mohindar and Hisar Flying School’s chief flying instructor Mahavir belong to Sirsa town in Haryana and were known to each other. The entire racket seems to be primarily their handiwork, an ACB official said.

The two chief flying instructors took over Rs.5 lakh as bribe from each of the individuals for issuing fake flying hour certificates, the official added.

ACB has arrested two flying instructors, an assistant flying instructor, five pilots and the assistant manager of the Jaipur International Airport’s area traffic control.