Kochi nursing job scam runs into Rs.200 crore: CBI

Kochi, April 18: The CBI has estimated that the Kochi nursing employment scam runs into nearly Rs.200 crore. A Central Bureau of Investigation source told IANS that a Kochi-based agency, which for some time has been recruiting nurses for Kuwait, was collecting from them Rs.19.5 lakh each instead of the service charge of Rs.19,500. "We have served a notice to the owner of the agency who is in the Middle East to join the probe on Monday," said the CBI source. Additional District and Sessions Judge B. Kalam Pasha, after going through the case diary, expressed shock over its contents and denied anticipatory bail to Protector of Emigrants (PoE) L. Adolfus. The central agency took up probe into this case last month after an Income Tax raid at the private recruitment agency based here revealed that it was collecting huge sums as recruitment fees from nurses selected for employment in Kuwait.