A month after its launch, the helpline number (80530-03400) to report immigration fraud or “kaburatbazi” has received over 220 calls till Sunday. A special investigation team (SIT) was constituted under Ambala Range IG Sibash Kabiraj to probe the cases.
The helpline was started on April 21, a week after home minister Anil Vij ordered the formation of the SIT on April 13 that also includes Ambala SP Jashandeep Singh Randhawa and Kaithal SP Abhishek Jorwal.
Officials said in the first week after launch, nearly 15 calls were received daily on the helpline and the number reduced to at least five calls a day.
ASI Parveen Kumar from a monitoring cell under the SIT said, “Initially, most of the callers rangup to enquire about pending complaints. Our task is to guide the caller on how their query or complaint can be treated either in their respective district or at the IG office.”
Randhawa said the motive behind launching the helpline was to provide a convenient mode to the public that can share their complaints physically or through WhatsApp or e-mail.
Since the formation of the SIT, over 138 FIRs have been registered in the state for immigration fraud, mostly based on old complaints, with maximum 53 lodged in Ambala, followed by Kurukshetra, Yamunanagar and Karnal.
{{/usCountry}}Since the formation of the SIT, over 138 FIRs have been registered in the state for immigration fraud, mostly based on old complaints, with maximum 53 lodged in Ambala, followed by Kurukshetra, Yamunanagar and Karnal.
{{/usCountry}}At least 22 accused have also been arrested for the crime across the state, said officials.
IG Kabiraj said, “The team has started scrutinising old complaints and also verifying fresh ones to determine if they are of immigration fraud or some other monetary dispute. A DSP-level cop has been appointed as a nodal officer in each district and regular monitoring has ensured that the number of old complaints is decreasing.”
Haryana home minister Anil Vij, through the IG, on Tuesday has also issued a set of guidelines for foreign education aspirants on how to verify agents, foreign universities, visa from embassy and air ticket from airlines. Registration with the Indian Embassy in foreign countries has been highly suggested. Apart from this, the team will also probe around 375 cases registered during the tenure of the last SIT under former IG Bharti Arora.
Officials said over 70 cases of illegal international human trafficking were registered under the Emigration Act in different districts in May 2020, when 73 residents of Haryana were deported from the United States of America (USA) and landed at Amritsar airport on May 19.
Following such a high number of deportations amid nationwide lockdown due to the Covid pandemic, the state government constituted the SIT under Arora with six IPS officers as its members.
As the deportations continued from over 15 countries with regular reporting of “kabutarbazi” cases, the number of cases rose to 477 in four years from 2018 till mid 2021.
Of the total, maximum 206 cases were registered in Karnal, followed by 97 in Kurukshetra, 58 in Kaithal, 53 in Ambala, 31 in Panipat and nine in other districts.
A total of 454 such Indian citizens were deported on different occasions in 2019, 2020 and 2021, a report submitted by the Arora-led SIT during late 2021 suggested. The SIT also managed to arrest 529 accused, of which 437 were held under criminal cases registered in 2020. The report claims that the number is 169% more than the total accused arrested under Section 24 of the Emigration Act in the past 12 years.
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