Delhi: Fake US visa racket busted, three held
Delhi: Fake US visa racket busted, three held
The accused allegedly sent 100 people to US illegally.

New Delhi: The Delhi police crime branch on Saturday arrested three people in connection with one of the biggest visa rackets in the capital.

Police say, Ajay Shukla, the mastermind and his aides Pawan Mishra and Gur Sahib Singh procured US visas for as many as 100 people, using forged documents.

Each visa was sold for Rs 5 lakh.

Ajay, a travel agent, was operating from one of the residential quarters of Safdarjung hospital.

Police seized 102 passports, fake bank statements, Income Tax papers and fake rubber stamps have been seized.

"Following a tip-off, Ajay Shukla, Pawan Mishra and Gur Sahib Singh were arrested on February 20 near the US embassy and in the Rohini area of the capital for allegedly facilitating acquisition of US visas on the basis of fake documents," Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Satyendra Garg was quoted as saying by IANS.

Mishra was arrested and found in possession of two passports in the name of Ravinder Kumar and Parveen Kumar along with fake bank statements, authority letters, visa fee deposit slips, visa interview letters, visa applications and other papers.

Garg said Mishra disclosed during interrogation that Shukla was the mastermind of the racket. Shukla was arrested near the US embassy, while Singh who was standing in the queue for submitting visa applications was nabbed with fake documents.

IANS reports

"Armed with these fake documents the applicants used to apply to the US embassy for visa. They said on average they used to facilitate 10-15 applicants every month of which three-four applicants succeeded," he added.

Police said Shukla was charging up to Rs.500,000 from successful applicants and Rs.20,000 as facilitation fee from those who failed to acquire visas.

The UN considers as human trafficking the recruitment, transport, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion abduction, of fraud, for the purpose of exploitation.

Around 2-3 million people are trafficked annually in and out of India.

The trio has been booked under charges of forgery and criminal conspiracy.

This is the third largest human trafficking scam unearthed in the capital in the last one year.

In October last year Delhi Police had arrested 29 people, including a woman mastermind, on charges of human trafficking after the US embassy registered a police complaint.

The police said the 29 had approached the US embassy seeking visas on the basis of forged documents to present cultural performances in the US.

In April last year, the police arrested Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Babubhai Katara at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on the charge of trying to smuggle out a woman and a boy on his families' diplomatic passports.

Police later arrested a few touts, who revealed the names of four other parliamentarians - three from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) (Mohammed Tahir Khan, Mitrasen Yadav and Ashok Rawat) and one from the BJP (Ramswaroop Koli).

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