New Delhi, April 14: Files of several pilots suspected to have forged marksheets to obtain flying licences have gone missing from the office of the directorate general of civil aviation, police said today.
“Recently, the DGCA forwarded names of other suspected pilots who had obtained Airlines Transport Pilot Licence after fudging marksheets. During the probe we asked them to provide their files containing the fake marksheets and other details but they could not. They told us that the files of several pilots have gone missing,” said Ashok Chand, deputy commissioner (crime branch) of Delhi police.
He refused to give the number of missing files.
With the arrest of eight pilots from Delhi and Jaipur over the past month and a half for using forged marksheets to get licences, civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi asked DGCA to examine all the licences it has issued.
Accordingly, between 3,000 and 4,000 licences are being scrutinised by the DGCA, which is co-ordinating with the police and sending them names of suspected pilots for investigation.
Three DGCA officials and three touts were picked up by Delhi police in connection with the scam.
“It is shocking that several files of pilots have gone missing overnight. There is more to it than meets the eye and we suspect many DGCA employees are involved,” an officer who is part of the team probing the scam said.
“This fraud is big… some of these pilots are playing with human lives,” he said.
A senior DGCA official said the files might be “lying somewhere in the office. A search is on”.
The racket came to light in February when DGCA received a complaint that an IndiGo pilot, Parminder Kaur Gulati, 38, had used a forged marksheet to get her licence. The matter was forwarded to Delhi police and Gulati was arrested on March 8.
To obtain a licence, a pilot has to clear tests in aviation meteorology, air navigation and radio aids and instruments. But Gulati, like several other accused, had failed the air navigation test and missed the radio aids and instruments exam.
In the wake of these revelations, the Centre also ordered an inspection of the 40 flying schools in the country. A school run by the Rajasthan government and another in Haryana are facing the heat for allegedly issuing certificates to pilots who did not have the requisite flying hours. A minimum of 200 hours of flying training is needed for a commercial pilot’s licence.
“The government will cancel the licence of flying schools if they are found to be violating norms,” a DGCA official said.