6 Held In Immigration Scam; 62 Passports Seized.
News Source:- Six persons have been arrested, including an International English Language Testing System (IELTS)coach, in connection with fake immigration stamps, the police said on Sunday. They claim to have seized 62 passports from their possession.
The arrested persons have been identified as Saurav, an IELTS coach, Vicky, a herbal products businessman and two agents Sachin Kumar and Mukesh Goyal, a couple — Ravinder Singh and his wife Sunita Kumari, the police said.
On the intervening night of March 1 and 2, a complaint was received about a suspected fake and forged Indian immigration stamp in respect of the couple who was seeking departure to Canada on the strength of Canadian visit visa by Air Canada, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI Airport) Sanjay Bhatia.
During scrutiny of their travel documents, it was found that there was no travel history of the couple in the immigration passenger log and the Indian immigration stamps affixed on their passports were fake and forged, he said.
During investigations, it was revealed that Kumari and Singh wanted to live in Canada. They approached their friend Shyam who introduced them to an agent named Vicky, who runs a shop in Kurukshetra in Haryana, said Mr. Bhatia.
Vicky took ₹6 lakh from them on the pretext of arranging Canadian visas. He arranged them from Sachin who took the couple to Chandigarh to get them their visas. The agent arranged for fake immigration stamps to make them look like frequent travellers, the DCP said.
He said Vicky during questioning disclosed that it was Sachin who had procured the fake immigration stamps and placed the same on the passports. Sachin was then arrested on March 27, Mr. Bhatia said.
Forged papers
Sachin disclosed that he gave the passports of Singh and his wife to one Saurav who got the forged immigration stamp affixed on passports to make them look like frequent travellers. Saurav, who runs an office in Kurukshetra, was also arrested in this regard on March 29, the DCP said.
On his instance, Goyal was arrested and he revealed that till date he had prepared 20-25 fake immigration and bank stamps for Saurav and his accomplices, he said.
Modus operandi
Vicky used to lure people on the pretext of arranging visas and sending them abroad. He used to arrange meetings of the clients with Sachin for the same, Mr. Bhatia added.
Sachin, who was in touch with various agents in Mohali and Kurukshetra, used to take passports of the clients on the pretext of preparing the file. He would then send them to Saurav, who would affix fake immigration stamps of various countries on the passports to create a fake travel history as this assisted in procuring a visa from the embassy concerned, the police said.
Fake bank stamps were used by them to create fake bank account statements, they added.