Days after the crime branch of Delhi Police started investigation into the alleged use of forged marksheet to acquire an Airlines Transport Pilot Licence (ATPL) from the country's airline regulator and arrested IndiGo airline's commander Parminder Kaur Gulati (38), cops has now detained a fourth pilot for questioning.
Sources in the crime branch said the pilot picked up for questioning works with Air India. "It is too early to speculate whether this pilot will be arrested. We wanted to verify certain facts. We will need more time to work on the case,'' said an officer.
Additional DCP (Crime) P S Kushwah admitted that "more pilots were being questioned,'' but refused to give details. This is the fourth instance where a pilot has been suspected of using forged documents. The other three belong to IndiGo and MDLR airlines.
The crime branch had earlier received a setback after it emerged that the two other accused, Meenakshi Sehgal from IndiGo and Swarn Singh Talwar from MDLR, had been "absconding'' from their residences. While Meenakshi is a resident of Lawrence Road in Delhi, Swarn is a resident of Jaipur.
"Our teams did not find them at their residences. We are trying to meet their family members. We hope to arrested these two shortly,'' claimed an investigating officer.
TOI had first reported about the three pilots using fraudulent means so that they might command an aircraft.
The cops said they are investigating the role of insiders "in the DGCA'' in the fraud. "It is noteworthy had both Gulati and Meenakshi worked for the same organization and submitted fake marksheets on the same day in November, 2009. We have also come to know that a few sources at the DGCA are also involved in the racket. We will visit the DGCA offices soon to verify some papers from them,'' said a senior officer.
The fraud had come to light after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) - found the three were commandeering aircraft after allegedly forging papers that claiming they had cleared the test to graduate from co-pilot to the captain's seat. IndiGo had since grounded both the pilots while Swarn was not on duty as his airline -MDLR - has not been operational for the past several months.
Indigo airline's Parminder Kaur Gulati (38), who has been grounded, was apprehended by a team of Delhi Police's crime branch from her Kirti Nagar residence following investigations into a complaint filed by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). DGCA Director Training and Licensing D C Sharma had filed a complaint that Gulati had obtained an Airlines Transport Pilot License using forged documents.