The CBI has estimated that the Kochi nursing employment scam runs into nearly Rs.200 crore.

A Central Bureau of Investigation source told IANS that a Kochi-based agency, for some time recruiting nurses for Kuwait, was collecting from them Rs.19.5 lakh each instead of the service charge of Rs.19,500.

"We have served a notice to the owner of the agency who is in the Middle East to join the probe on Monday," said the CBI source.

Additional District and Sessions Judge B. Kalam Pasha, after going through the case diary, expressed shock over its contents and denied anticipatory bail to Protector of Emigrants (PoE) L. Adolfus.

The central agency took up probe into this case last month after an Income Tax raid at the private recruitment agency based here revealed that it was collecting huge sums as recruitment fees from nurses selected for employment in Kuwait.

The CBI stepped in after a nurse who was recruited and paid the fees to the agency, decided not to take up the job. When she approached the PoE for help to get her money back from the recruitment agency, she got a cold response.

"Let us see, if the agency owner appears before us on Monday...," added the CBI source who did not wish to be identified.