Fake pilot scam: Another arrest made

Delhi police has arrested a pilot working with a private airline for procuring a commercial pilot license by allegedly submitting fake marksheets.

With the arrest of Swarn Singh, police has arrested a total of seven pilots for procuring commercial pilot licence or Air Transport Pilot Licence by allegedly submitting fake marksheets.

A total of 15 people have been arrested in Delhi and Jaipur since March 7 after the fake pilot scam was unearthed by the DGCA.

Earlier on March 26, Delhi Police had claimed to have busted a gang involved in helping pilots obtain licences using forged documents with the arrest of a senior official of DGCA and three others, including a pilot.

Pradeep Kumar (48), presently an assistant director with the DGCA, Pradeep Tyagi (35), a pilot who helped others procure fake marksheets, and his two associates Pankaj Jain (23) and Lalit Jain (34) were arrested from Delhi and Chennai then. Two pilots were arrested earlier in March.

Mahan Jyoti Bhattacharya (37) and Mohammed K Ansari (42) were apprehended on April 5 following the questioning of two pilots Abhishek Kaushik and Hiren Nagar who claimed that these DGCA staffers have taken lakhs of rupees from them for providing licences using forged marksheets.

Police had on Tuesday said that some files related to some pilots under scanner for obtaining licences using forged documents have gone missing from airline regulator DGCA's office.

Police have registered a case of destruction of evidence against unknown persons in this regard and initiated an investigation into the incident, which they believe is done to protect some DGCA officials who were involved in helping people procure pilot licences using forged marksheets.