Nursing recruitment scam: Court rejects Uthup Varghese's bail plea

Kochi: A CBI court on Tuesday dismissed the bail petition of Uthup M. Varghese, the key accused in the Rs 300-crore nursing recruitment scam. The court’s decision came after the investigation team submitted before it that there are possibilities of Mr Varghese, proprietor of Al-Zarafa Travels and Manpower Consultants, going undergr-ound which would derail the investigation. The court examined the case dairy submitted by the CBI and found that statements of 10 more witnesses needed to be recorded. The CBI also has to uncover details about the money fleeced by the agency from people recruited for the Kuwait ministry of health.

Counsel appearing for Mr Varghese submitted that investigation against him was completed and the chargesheet filed and hence keeping him behind bars was no longer needed. However, the court considering the possibility of accused again going underground dismissed his bail plea. It was in March, 2015, that the CBI registered a case against Al-Zarafa Travels and Manpower Consultants after it was found the agency charged Rs 19.5 lakh instead of Rs 19,500 as service charge from nurses recr-uited for job in Kuwait. Investigation revealed that the agency had collected Rs 117 crore fr-om the nurses. Mr Varghese was arrested by the CBI after he arrived to surrender before the investigation officer at Nedumbassery airport last week.