Career Aviation NEWS: An AIR India pilot has been arrested for allegedly using forged marksheets to procure a commercial flying licence from the country’s airline regulator, the police said on Sunday.

An AIR India pilot has been arrested for allegedly using forged marksheets to procure a commercial flying licence from the country’s airline regulator, the police said on Sunday.

The arrest, second in the past one week, comes following the scrutiny of the licences of as many as 3000 to 4000 pilots by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

The accused has been identified as Captain J K Verma, a resident of north Delhi. He is in his forties and was apprehended late on Saturday night following police investigations into a complaint filed by the DGCA.

DGCA, in its complaint, had told the police that they doubted the veracity of documents provided by several pilots. Verma was found to have forged marksheets of the Pilot License Examination (PLE) which is essential for obtaining a commercial flying licence, a senior police officer said.

NEW DELHI: Less than a week after a woman pilot of a private airline was arrested for procuring pilot licence through forged documents, a co-pilot of Air India was arrested by the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police on Saturday on similar charges. Two more such cases are under scrutiny, the police said.

“Air India co-pilot Captain J. K. Verma, who is in his 40s, was arrested following a complaint by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) that he had produced a forged result card to procure the pilot licence. He is a resident of Pune,” said DCP (CB) Ashok Chand.

Mr. Chand said two more such cases were under investigation.

“We are looking into similar complaints against Meenakshi Sehgal and Swarn Singh of Indigo and MDLR airlines respectively. Meenakshi is a resident of Lawrence Road in Delhi and Swarn belongs to Jaipur. The two are absconding,” he said.

The Crime Branch had arrested Captain Parminder Kaur Gulati (38) on Tuesday on similar charges. The fraud came to light when an enquiry by the DGCA into an incident of “hard landing” of an Indigo airline flight revealed that Captain Gulati had submitted forged documents to obtain the Airlines Transport Pilot Licence. The matter was reported to the police for investigation.

Capt Gulati had failed in the air navigation paper and did not take the radio aids and instruments paper, but submitted a forged result card to DGCA on November 11, 2009, and obtained the licence.

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

The police said they had zeroed in on two more pilots, identified as Meenakshi Sehgal with Indigo Airlines and Swaran Singh Talwar of MDLR, for using documents. The two are reportedly on the run.

On March 8, the Crime Branch arrested Parminder Kaur Gulati, 38, a suspended pilot with Indigo Airlines, for allegedly obtaining the mandatory Airlines Transport Pilot License (ALTP) using forged documents. DGCA had ordered an inquiry after an incident of hard landing by Gulati at Goa.

By
Neha Jain

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