Kochi: Three young engineers employed at the Cochin International Airport were trapped in a fake narcotics case by union leaders, after a bid to hide one kilogram of narcotics at their residence failed.

The attempt by the union leaders was foiled, as excise officials arrived at the engineers' residence before they hid the drug in the apartment. Later, a fake excise case was registered against the engineers alleging that three packets containing 13 grams of ganja were in their possession.

The engineers were deployed for fueling work at the Cochin International Airport as part of enhancing the airlines security.

The investigation report against these officials was dumped by higher-ups in the excise minister’s office. Additional excise enforcement commissioner Sam Christy Daniel who prepared the report was also threatened.

The report submitted by the officer which clearly mentioned that the three young officers were innocent and the false case against them be scrapped, was dumped by the officials. Though the engineers were reinstated in service after being found innocent , they are now under constant pressure from the union leaders to abandon their jobs and leave.

During the course of investigation, it was found that assistant aviation officer Karthekeyan who gave a statement in favour of the three engineers, had also been assaulted.

It may be noted that engineers who have undergone high level training are deployed for fueling work by Bharat Star Service Company which functions under the direct monitoring of BPCL at the international airport. At the moment the three engineers are continuing in the jobs under severe stress.

Gold mafia involved?

The fake ganga case was foisted on them with the objective of bringing in private contract workers into this field. Gold mafia rackets were also allegedly involved in the attempt to trap the engineers.Though their goons assaulted them, the engineers were unwilling to quit their jobs.

The workers involved in fueling work is only screened once at the airport. When the Customs Department realised that gold smugglers exploited this loophole to their benefit, they recommended the Airport authorities to hire qualified permanent officials for the job.

This decision which eventually led to the appointment of the engineers did not go well with gold mafia nexus in the airport.

The officials who have been found guilty and named in the Special Investigation report (CA/EC - 84/2019 dated 15.07.19) are ; Aluva excise inspector V S Sujith, civil officers C H Shabu, Jose Roby, S Siddharth, C T Pradeepkumar, C T Suneesh Kumar, assistant excise grade inspector V M Hari, excise circle inspector Xavier Sebastian who committed lapses in monitoring.

The findings of the investigation;

• Engineers were framed in false case to throw them out of their jobs.

• The three arrested youths had no habit of consuming alcohol or smoking.

• The excise officials misused their position yielding to the interests of the union leaders.

• The three ganja packets recovered from the youth as reported in mahasar, were placed by he officials themselves.

• The signatures of witnesses in mahasar were found to be fake.