Delhi: Punjab agent held for smuggling people to US via ‘dunki’ route

The Delhi Police on Friday stated that they had arrested a Punjab-based travel agent, exposing a deep-rooted network operating through illegal ‘dunki routes’ used to smuggle individuals to the US.

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The accused Amit Arora (also known as Rachit Arora), a 43-year-old travel agent from Balachaur, Punjab, was involved in facilitating unauthorised travel to the US through a network of countries. He used to operate along with his accomplices.

A senior IGI Airport police official stated that Amit had been involved in 10 other cases of visa fraud and had sent around 25-30 individuals using the ‘dunki route’.

The arrest came after a case involving Maninder Pal Singh, a 20-year-old from Jalandhar, who was deported from the US. Singh’s passport was found to be tampered with, with pages missing to hide fake visas and immigration stamps. Singh’s year-long journey took him through Kazakhstan, Dubai, Senegal, Libya, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico before reaching the US, where he was detained for using a counterfeit passport. He spent two months in detention before being deported to India, the official added.

“The agent promised Maninder that he would be sent to the US in exchange for Rs 41 lakh via different countries as part of the donkey route. After reaching the US, on the instructions of Mandeep, he removed pages from his passport containing fake visas and stamps, thereby tampered his passport,” the police said.

“While some embark on these journeys fully aware of the risks, many fall victim to false promises of legal work permits and visas. The Southeast Asian route through Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore, the Middle Eastern route through Gulf nations, the European route through Turkey, Greece, and Italy, and the South American and Caribbean routes and even countries like El Salvador and Curacao, which offer visa-on-arrival schemes.” a senior police official stated.

Last year, the Delhi Police arrested 21 agents, while six have already been caught in 2025 till date.