CBI to seek Interpol's help in nurses' job scam probe

Kochi, Apr 20: The CBI will seek the assistance of Interpol to bring back a key accused in the Rs.200-crore Kuwait nurses job scam, said a CBI official.

The CBI had asked Uthup Varghese, who owns the agency which recruited nurses for Kuwait, to appear before the agency on Monday. [Kochi nursing job scam runs into Rs.200 crore, says CBI]

"Now that he has not presented before us today (Monday), despite serving notices, we will now...seek the assistance of Interpol to get him here," said the official who did not wish to be identified.

"Yes, we have come to know that at present he is in Kuwait," added the official.

The Kochi-based firm recruiting nurses for Kuwait was collecting Rs.19.50 lakh as fee instead of Rs.19,500 and had recruited nearly 1,000 nurses in the past one year.

Last month, Income Tax department officials during a raid at the recruitment agency found huge sums of unaccounted money, and soon the CBI stepped in after a nurse who was recruited and paid the whopping fee to the agency, decided not to take up the job.

When she approached the Protector of Emigrants (PoE) for help to get her money back from the recruitment agency, she got a cold response.

After a court here last week rejected an anticipatory bail application of the PoE, L. Adolfus, he appeared before the CBI on Monday morning.

"We heard from him what he had to say and he was let off. Now we are waiting for Varghese and in the meanwhile, we are going ahead with the probe," added the CBI official.

IANS