Immigration consultant lands in Chandigarh police net
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, August 16
A 26-year-old immigration consultant has been arrested by the UT police for allegedly defrauding 79 people who wished to go abroad. Ravinder Singh, also known as Ravi Sahab, the proprietor of immigration firm BB Council, and others have been accused of duping their victims of approximately Rs 2.50 crore.
According to the police, Ravinder, along with his paternal uncle Manpreet Singh Brar, started an immigration office in Sector 17. They allegedly promised to secure student visas and education loans for their clients, charging between Rs 40,000 and Rs 50,000 as registration fee and to arrange offer letters for students.
The police revealed that the accused would create fake offer letters and demand additional payments, including 60 blank cheques, CA reports and land registry deeds as surety for the education loans.
They also charged Rs 1.85 lakh for health insurance and Rs 6 lakh as a Guaranteed Investment Certificate (GIC) fee, which they deposited in their company account.
Investigations revealed that the accused did not possess a licence to operate in the immigration sector and were not authorised to accept money directly from students for offer letters or GIC fee.
So far, seven FIRs have been registered against the accused at Sector 17 police station for duping around 46 people of Rs 1.65 crore. Also, 33 fresh complaints have been received against the accused for allegedly cheating the victims out of Rs 82 crore.
