Anirban Sannigrahi, the Calcutta youth arrested for forging a pilot’s licence after failing to get one with a fake mark sheet, had been disqualified from training at a city flying institute after flunking a preliminary ground test.

Anirban, the 21-year-old son of a businessman, had enrolled for a flying course at the Camellia Institute of Aviation in Behala in May 2007 but never made it past ground training, documents in Metro’s possession prove.

His family in Thakurpukur blamed touts in Delhi for his plight, saying they misled him while he was trying to get his American pilot’s licence “converted” in accordance with Indian aviation norms.

“We had sent him to Texas to train as a pilot, where he did very well. On returning, he was unable to convert his licence. He fell into the tout trap because he is very young,” uncle Animesh said.

Anirban Sannigrahi

But the results of a preliminary test conducted in June 2007 (see picture) by the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) and the Behala institute show that Anirban wasn’t eligible to be a student pilot, let alone a licensed one.

Aviation rules stipulate that a candidate must score at least 50 per cent in each of the four categories in which they are tested before being cleared for cockpit and simulation training. Anirban, who had joined the Behala institute after Class XII, scored 40 per cent in air regulation, 45 per cent each in air navigation and aviation meteorology and 40 per cent in aircraft and engine basics.

His training log shows that Anirban didn’t do a single hour of flying at the institute. A student pilot needs to fly a minimum of 200 hours before applying for a commercial pilots’ licence.

“After he failed the ground test, he did not appear for a second examination,” said N.R. Datta, the chairman of the Camellia institute.

Anirban’s mother Bulbul said her son attended the Behala institute for only a couple of months. “Hardly any classes were held and there was no examination.”

Bulbul said she and husband Ashok decided to send their son to the US after seeing his determination to complete his pilot training. “Since childhood, he has dreamt of nothing else but to become a pilot.”

Uncle Animesh said the family had no idea that Anirban was being “targeted” until April 15, when he received a phone call from the crime branch of Delhi police. “He was summoned and shown some photographs of touts. He identified a few of them.”

Bulbul insisted that her son never paid money to the touts to get a fake licence. “My son is being harassed. He is traumatised,” she said.

Delhi police have confirmed that Anirban went to Texas, enrolled with Marc-Air-Incorporation Flying Club and got an American commercial pilot’s licence in May 2008.

In June that year, he registered for the DGCA licence-conversion programme and took the air navigation composite exam and the air regulation test. He failed to clear the second.

According to crime branch officials in Delhi, Anirban met a tout the following month, who promised him a forged mark sheet for Rs 3 lakh.

Anirban’s family members said they no longer wanted him to pursue a career in aviation but would like him to clear the exams and prove that he was fit to be a pilot.

Pilot licences have been under the scanner since February, when the DGCA receiving a complaint about an IndiGo pilot, Parminder Kaur Gulati, using a forged mark sheet to get a licence.

Gulati was arrested on March 8. Since then nine more student and licensed pilots have been arrested.

The police have not revealed if any airline had employed Anirban.