Sham Gurgaon firm 'trains' pilot, clips wings

GURGAON: Harish Abdul could see his dream of becoming a commercial pilot take off when he sat in the cockpit of a training aircraft in the Philippines. He hadn't foreseen a crash-landing only two days later.

Abdul, a 24-year-old Madurai resident, was sent back to India within 48 hours of his first flight. The training that cost him Rs 49 lakh and was being provided by a Gurgaon-based aviation company, was cut short abruptly and Abdul was asked to contact the company office in Gurgaon. But no one answered his call. The office, even the company, simply didn't exist.

The elaborate hoax pulled off by a group of frauds came to light on Wednesday when a complaint was filed at Sector 29 police station after J M Haroon, a Congress MP in Tamil Nadu, intervened on Abdul's behalf. In the complaint, Abdul said he had come to know about Ace Pilots Aviation, a Gurgaon-based company, through an online agent. The company promised flight training in the Philippines as part of its course, and a certificate. Eager to give his career a boost, an unsuspecting Abdul paid Rs 49,12,000 as course fee and donations.

Police believe the fraud had a conduit in the Philippines who arranged the training there. When Abdul made inquiries after returning to India, he was told no company by the name of Ace Pilots Aviation was authorized to provide pilot training. A case of fraud has been filed against two company officials named by Abdul - Lalitha Krishnamurthy and Anand Patel - after a preliminary investigation by the cyber cell.

A Gurgaon Police team will travel to Madurai. Abdul wasn't available for comment.

Source:   http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com