Postman held in visa racket

45-year-old Keshubhai Patel is the 27th man arrested in the immigration racket in Gujarat since it was busted in October last year, reports Debasish Panigrahi.

The Crime Branch on Thursday arrested a postman from Valsad in connection with the immigration racket.

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Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Deven Bharati told HT that Keshubhai Patel (45), a postman attached to the Valsad post-office, was remanded in police custody till January 28 by a metropolitan magistrate's court.

Patel is the 27th arrest in the immigration racket since it was busted in October last year.

Patel’s involvement came to the fore on the basis of the information provided by Tajuddin Sheikh, who was arrested in November, in the same racket. Sheikh had applied for a visa to UK under the name Cyprian D'Souza in June 2007. He had earlier been sent back to India for overstaying in UK.

During investigation, the CB learnt that Patel had allegedly delivered the fake passport to Sheikh. “Patel handed it over to Sheikh after taking some money,” DCP Bharati stated.

It may be recalled that Passport officer Naresh Dayabhai, a clerk with the Surat passport office had helped Mazgaon-based Aslam Panchal, the kingpin of the UK immigration racket, to procure several bogus passports to smuggle immigrants to the UK. Dayabhai had helped Sheikh to procure the passport. Both Dayabhai and Panchal were arrested earlier.

On January 22, Wahid Abdul Mansuri, owner of Drapes Shoppee, a home furnishing shop in Bandra, was arrested by the Crime Branch in connection with an illegal US immigration racket on his arrival from the UK.

Mansuri had smuggled a Ahmedabad-based woman to US in April 2007 by identifying her as his wife.