Scam-accused sailor was at two places at same time, reveals RTI

Mumbai Mirror: Mumbai: Sunday, 16 November 2014.

SCI employee was compensated for missing a flight at the time he was supposed to be sailing.

A former sailor with the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), who was awarded Rs 12,000 by a consumer forum for an Airlines' ticketing error, was also on a four-month trip aboard the M V Samudrika during the same period, an RTI inquiry has revealed.

In 2010, Naresh Birwadkar missed a Kingfisher Airlines flight from Chandigarh due to a ticketing error. He and two others complained to the consumer forum, which in its order dated July 3, dismissed the appeal for compensation of Rs 5 lakh for mental harassment. He was, awarded Rs 10,191 with 9 per cent interest. Another Rs 2,000, towards cost of complaint, was also allowed.

What is noteworthy is at the same time Birwadkar had signed on MV Samudrika on January 19, 2010 and signed out on July 10, 2012. The information was revealed when an RTI application was filed regarding a gratuity scam in which Birwadkar, among others, was reportedly involved.

Manoj Yadav of the Forward Seamen's Union of India had filed the query to support the union's case against Birwadkar. Birwadkar, along with P G Joseph and Gyandhar Mishra, have been accused of siphoning off nearly Rs 8 crore by duping 810 SCI employees. The case is currently being heard by the Labour Court.

"It is a classic case of one man being present at two locations at the same time. One of the instances is fake and amounts to a serious issue, which needs to be probed," Yadav has written in a fresh complaint to the South Mumbai District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, which will hear the matter soon.