A day after busting an emigration racket, the police is now questioning officials in the Protector of Emigrants (POE) department in the Ministry of Indian Overseas Affairs, in an emigration scam unearthed on Saturday by the central Delhi police.
“This particular racket had been thriving
since 1994,” a senior police officer told HT on condition of anonymity.
On March 5, Sanjay Singh (34) and his accomplice Ashraf Khan (27) were apprehended by the Special Staff of the central district for allegedly being involved in procuring P.O.E stickers from the ministry on fake or forged documents.
“They would first prepare fake stamps and letterheads of reputed or anonymous Gulf companies, procure POE
stickers from the ministry and then entice unqualified people and earn good money,” said
the officer.
Police said 224 passports with POE stickers, Rs 14.5 lakh in cash and fake stamps and letterheads of various companies based in the Gulf were recovered from the duo.
“We zeroed in on the duo after being informed that many of their clients had been
forced to do menial jobs
after reaching a particular foreign country because the company did not exist,” said the officer.
The duo was operating in the garb of Bipasha International Company and would allegedly charge more than Rs 5 lakh for a single visa.