By IANS,
New Delhi : A 23-year-old pilot was arrested here for submitting the forged marksheet of an exam conducted by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to get a commercial pilot licence from the regulator, police said Tuesday.
Anirudh Kiran Deshpande was arrested from his house in Vasant Kunj Tuesday, said Deputy Commissioner of Police Ashok Chand.
Deshpande, who obtained his foreign commercial pilot licence from the US, was held after police received a complaint from the chief vigilance officer of the DGCA. He had given forged marksheets in the DGCA to get an Indian commercial pilot’s licence.
The pilot told police that he obtained his foreign commercial pilot licence from Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology in Oklahoma in 2008.
After returning to India, he appeared in the DGCA-conducted exam in July 2009 on two subjects air navigation composite and air regulation. He failed in the air navigation composite paper.
He re-appeared in this paper in October 2009 and January 2010 but could not clear it, police said.
He later met O.P. Malhotra, a resident of Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, outside the DGCA office here.
Malhotra assured him that he could help him in clearing the paper and obtaining a pilot licence. The both struck a deal for Rs.3 lakh and Rs.1.8 lakh was paid as advance.
On the advice of Malhotra, Deshpande again appeared in the exam in April 2010 but again failed to clear the examination.
In July 2010, Malhotra called Deshpande outside the DGCA office and told him that a forged marksheet showing that he had passed the air navigation composite paper had been obtained.
The marksheet along with other documents were submitted in the DGCA in August 2010 for issue of a commercial pilot licence. However, the fraud was detected by the DGCA during scrutiny.