Fake pilot probe: Two DGCA officials held

New Delhi, Apr 6(ANI): Two Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)fficials have been arrested here for allegedly helping pilots procure commercial pilot licences.

The duo - M J Bhattacharya and Mohammed K Ansari - were arrested by the crime branch of Delhi Police late on Tuesday night.

The arrest of the two DGCA officials comes less than a month after Delhi police arrested Pradeep Kumar, a top DGCA official, for allegedly arranging pilots' licences through forged documents.

Earlier on Tuesday, Hiren Nagar and Abhishek Kaushik were arrested from Ahmedabad in connection with the scam.

With this, five pilots have been arrested by Delhi Police while two others have been apprehended by Rajasthan Police in Jaipur for using forged marksheets to procure a licence from the DGCA.

On Monday, Abhinav Kaushik from private airline Indigo was arrested in connection with the scam.

The first to be apprehended was suspended IndiGo pilot Parminder Kaur Gulati on March 8 and JK Verma of Air India on March 12.

Two pilots of SpiceJet - Anoop Choudhary and Amit Moondra - have also allegedly obtained Commercial Pilot Licence on the basis of forged flying certificates.

Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi had earlier said that the government would take strict action against fake flying schools enabling pilots to obtain licences without proper training and documents.

Ravi said: "The Ministry has issued go ahead orders to the concerned agencies in order to build a strong case against the alleged fake schools without any leniency."

"There are about 40 flying schools. Now there is an audit of these schools... Blanket order has been given to go ahead into the complaints. There is no leniency to anybody," he added. (ANI)