Job racket in shipping industry busted

Mumbai, Jan 1 (UNI) Police here have arrested five people for allegedly running a racket of providing fake documents to those seeking jobs in the shipping industry.

The five were arrested subsequent to the arrest of one ship crew member who was found to have secured the job on the strength of a fake document.

The five allegedly provided the Continuous Discharge Certificate (CDC) documents which are a must for securing jobs in shipping companies.

Additional Commissioner of Police Dr Venkatesham told reporters today that the matter came to light after verification of the documents of a ship crew, Azaruddin Shaikh, by an immigration officer Madhusudhan Khutwad. The CDC, which is a valid document issued by the shipping officer for getting job on a ship, in Shaikh's possession was found to be a forged one.

Shaikh was arrested and booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

During his interrogation, Shaikh revealed the names of Clement Victor Dias and Faim Ahmed Anis Ahmed (both of whom operated a placement service), Premkumar Baleshwar Prasad (a forger), Bipinkumar Suresh Prasad, and Ganesh alias Bablu Nitai Patra.

These five were arrested and police have seized a car, 42 forged Indian CDCs, six incomplete forged Indian CDCs, 26 rubber stamps, numbering machine, xerox machine and computer with scanner, Dr Venkatesham added.

He informed that CDCs are normally acquired at the cost of Rs 500 from the Director General of Shipping after submitting all relevant documents by the job seeker. It takes over six months to get the certificate.

However, the five provided forged CDCs to the job seekers almost at once and charged anything between Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000, Dr Venkatesham said.

UNI ST MAZ GT KN1918