Kochi, May 24 (IANS): The two arrested -- Firoz Khan and Sathaar by the local police here, have been remanded to two weeks judicial custody for their involvement in an alleged fraudulent recruitment scam, which left several nurses from the state languishing in the UAE.

A police official attached to the Ernakulam North Police station said, both the accused after their arrest were produced before the court, which remanded them to judicial custody.

The accused were running a recruitment firm, here and had collected Rs 2.5 lakh from several aspirant nurses offering them a job in the UAE.

The police made the arrest in the nick of time after the two were planning to escape to Delhi.

After the recruited nurses reached UAE, they were left in the lurch and their promised jobs of nurses for giving Covid vaccine jabs never happened, leaving many of them in dire straits.

Following this, while some returned empty handed and took up the case of being cheated with the police and those who were unable to come back got in touch with the media through emails of their sob stories. The police here, got into the act and after a while arrested the two who were responsible for this.

After the sob stories of the nurses who were stranded in the UAE, healthcare groups there have offered work to them as they were stranded in the country due to this job scam.

Among those who have come forward include Azad Moopen, chairman and managing director of Aster DM Healthcare, Sanjay M. Paithankar, Managing Director of Right Health.