E-Paper
Canadian visa racket busted: 2 arrested, five passports, ₹26.70 lakh cash seized
With the arrest of two accused Jalandhar police claimed to have busted a fake Canadian visa racket and have recovered cash worth ₹26.70 lakh and five passports from their possession.
With the arrest of two accused Jalandhar police claimed to have busted a fake Canadian visa racket and have recovered cash worth ₹26.70 lakh and five passports from their possession.
Joint commissioner of police Sandeep Kumar Sharma said Gurnam Singh of Talwandi Bhindra village of Gurdaspur had lodged a complaint with the police that he had handed over 25 original passports and money related to Canadian tourist visas of his acquaintance and his relatives to Santosh Kumar of Lucknow.
Sharma said during investigation, it came to fore that accused Santosh whose real name was Wajid Ali lived in Dubai. “He used to visit Jalandhar to strike travel business deals with his accomplice identified as Munish Kumar of Balachaur in SBS Nagar,” Sharma said.
Police said the payments to the accused were made both in cash and through bank transfers.
“Of the total original passports given for visa applications, Wajid Ali alias Santosh sent 22 passports with visas attached to Gurnam Singh via WhatsApp. Upon checking, it was found that these visas were fake and bogus Canada tourist visa stickers were pasted on them, following which the matter was reported to police and a detailed inquiry was conducted,” police said.
Joint commissioner Sharma said both the accused were arrested during a special operation from different locations in Jalandhar.
The police have registered the case under sections of 420 (cheating) and 406 (criminal breach of trust), 465 (for making forged documents), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using forged document as genuine) of Indian Penal Code.
Joint commissioner Sharma said the police received a complaint over a month ago but the FIR was registered under sections of IPC because the occurrence of events happened before the implementation of BNS.
As per available information, the complainant handed over the passports in April.
