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An Air India pilot has been arrested in Delhi for allegedly using forged marksheets to procure a licence from the airline regulator. This is the second such incident in the past four days.
Captain J K Verma was apprehended in Delhi on Saturday night after investigations into a complaint filed by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation which claimed that some of the pilots had forged marksheets to get their licence.
"We have arrested Verma. Investigations are on. We have been provided more names by the DGCA. The scanner is on two more pilots," the official said.
Verma allegedly forged mark-sheets of the Pilot License Examination for obtaining the licence.
Delhi Police's Crime Branch had on March 8 arrested Parminder Kaur Gulati, 38, a suspended pilot of Indigo, for allegedly obtained the mandatory Airlines Transport Pilot License using forged documents.
According to Civil Aviation secretary Nasim Zaidi, the licenses of 3,000 to 4,000 pilots are being scrutinised by the DGCA following the arrest of Gulati on charges of forging documents to procure the license.
"Commercial pilot licenses are being scrutinised following this incident," Zaidi has said.
With ATPL, one can become a co-pilot and to get a full fledged commercial pilot licence, one should have ATPL with adequate flying hours. Gulati was grounded on January 11 following an incident of hard landing of an Indigo flight in Goa. During initial enquiry by DGCA, it was found that she had allegedly submitted a forged result card of the Pilot License Examination of January 2009 for obtaining ALTP.
On the basis of the complaint, a case was registered. "It emerged that the result card of Pilot License Examination submitted by Gulati as proof of passing Air Navigation and Radio Aids and Instruments subjects in January 2009 session for obtaining ALTP license was forged," he said.
She appeared for the above subjects in April 2009 session and July 2009 session but failed to clear them. In order to obtain ATPL, a pilot has to clear three subjects -- Aviation Meterology, Air Navigation and Radio Aids & Instruments.
Gulati had cleared Aviation Meterology in April 2008 but in spite of repeated attempts, she could not clear Air Navigation and Radio Aids & Instruments.
"She submitted a forged result card of passing Air Navigation and Radio Aids & Instruments to DGCA in November 2009 and she was issued an ATPL License," he said.