Sailors without minimum eligibility working on ships

Rajkot: A month before the Gujarat board’s Class 10 results are announced, a fake marksheet scam was busted in port town Salaya of Devbhumi Dwarka by the special operations group (SOG) on Tuesday.
The SOG arrested 21-year-old Amji Kungda with 66 bogus marksheets of Class 10. Kungda, a commerce graduate having a photocopy shop, lured a large number of local youngsters who aspired to work as seafarers on Indian and foreign-flagged ships where the salary is reasonably good.
The mastermind of this racket who lives in Mumbai is yet to be arrested.
The racket has been exposed barely a fortnight after a massive racket of hiring dummy candidates thriving for the last 11 years was busted in Bhavnagar.
Police said those aspiring to make a career as seafarers are supposed to get the Standard of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Sea Farers (STCW) certificate which is given after a physical training that lasts for about a month. The candidate’s minimum qualification to enroll for this job is passing Class 10.
A majority of the aspirants had not studied up to Class 10 and Kungda sniffed a chance to make quick bucks.
PC Singrakhiya, in-charge police inspector, SOG said, “On November 9, we got specific information that this person was getting an STCW certificate by charging Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000 from aspirants. We found 66 marksheets in his possession and these were sent to the education board in Gandhinagar for verification. We registered an offence as the board confirmed that the marksheets were fake.”
Kungda used to send the money and documents of the aspirants with their digital signatures and passport-size photos to the mastermind in Mumbai. He also made fake Class 10 marksheets required for the application and sent them to Mumbai.
Using these applications and documents, the mastermind then applied online in institutes offering STCW certificates, and the aspirants were sent to Mumbai for training.
Police found fake marksheets for academic years from 2010 to 2020 and the digital signature of the examination secretary.
“Some people who got the certificate based on fake marksheets are also working as sailors in Dubai and some other foreign countries. We recorded their statements and they claimed that they paid Kungda for getting the STCW certificate and were ignorant that he made their fake mark sheet,” the officer added.
The investigators also contacted the institutions who said that the certificates they issued were genuine.
“Kungda had mastered the skill of making duplicate marksheets as he had a photocopy shop and was well-versed with designing software,” he said.