The Delhi Police unearthed a job placement fraud with the arrest of two people,who allegedly duped 400 aircraft maintenance engineers and 16 pilots to the tune of Rs 20 crore. The men,police said,had started a company,Blue Star Aviation Services (BSAS) Ltd,in August 2011 and advertised in newspapers for pilot training and providing technical expertise to aircraft maintenance engineers. The company promised jobs with foreign airlines. After the arrest of Sushil Kumar and H C Yadav,both senior officials with BSAS,police have also obtained non-bailable warrants against two directors of the company Sahil Kumar and Om Prakash. Police said an FIR in the case was registered by pilots in August last year,and another FIR was registered in March at the Dwarka police station. Police said the company advertisements drew 400 engineers,who had aircraft maintenance engineering (AME) degrees,and 16 pilots,who had commercial pilot licence,to the course. The company,police said,charged each engineer Rs 1.5 lakh and each pilot Rs 15 lakh for the course. It promised the candidates training in foreign institutes and jobs with good salary. According to police,the men set up BSAS office in Sector-11,Dwarka,and conducted interviews with candidates in five star hotels. A pilot told police that after his interview he was handed an offer letter that stated he would receive Rs 20,000 per month during the training period and $3,000 a month after the training. But the company delayed the training process and made empty promises of sending candidates to Germany and Rome for training. Police were told that BSAS did send eight pilots to a training institute in London,after the candidates mounted pressure. The company provided the eight pilots an international debit card with a balance amount of Rs 7 lakh and Rs 2 lakh in cash. But on reaching London,the pilots found that the debit cards were blocked,police were told. The company claimed that it had sent the training fee of Rs 60 lakh to the institute (in London),but the cheques had bounced. They had forged the cheques with the signatures of General Manager H C Yadav. The bank later told us and police that the cheques were never issued by them, Sandeep,a victim of the fraud,said. He said he enrolled for the course after he read about eight pilots being sent for training. By the time the pilots returned (and shared stories of the fraud),the company had shut down. The accused couldnt be traced, Sandeep said. Police said Sushil Kumar confessed to the crime after the arrest. He also told police that he met the other three accused and that the BSAS shut down in August 2012. A senior police officer said: Sahil and Om Prakash are on the run. Non bailable warrants have been issued against them. The accused withdrew the money and spent most of it on jewellery and other assets. We are verifying whether BSAS was registered on the basis of fake documents.
