Fake visa racket busted in Delhi, 4 land in police net

The Delhi Police have busted a fake visa racket and arrested four persons. The accused used to illegally send people abroad by allegedly making fake visa stickers.

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The accused have been identified as Paramjeet Singh, a Punjab-based visa agent, Tajiender Singh, Sunil Kumar Sood and Uday Pal Singh. The police also seized 14 forged seals (Embassy stamps), 25 passports of Nepal and Bangladesh and 50 visa stickers of Serbia, Canada, United Kingdom, Brazil and Germany from their possession.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Devesh Kumar Mahla said a person, Lakhveer Singh, filed a complaint at the Chanakya Puri police station on December 16 stating that he and his four friends - Arshdeep Singh, Gagandeep Singh, Rajdeep Singh, and Chhinda Singh - met Ranvir through Instagram several months ago. He promised to secure German visas for them at a cost of Rs 8 lakh per person.

“Ranvir provided them with the Mexican WhatsApp contact number of one Paramjeet Singh. In August, they met Paramjeet, who collected their original passports and a token money of Rs 20,000 per person. Subsequently, they paid another instalment of Rs 1 lakh per person to Paramjeet, totalling Rs 6 lakh, for documentation and other formalities,” the DCP said.

On December 1, Paramjeet sent them a photocopy of Rajdeep’s visa, suggesting that one visa had been obtained and the others would follow shortly. However, when the complainant verified the visa, it was found be fake.

Fifteen days later, Paramjeet asked applicants to meet him to collect their visas and pay the remaining amount. On the same day, the complainant approached the police and registered a compliant at the Chanakya Puri police station.

The police laid a trap near Kuwait Embassy and arrested Paramjeet. Five visa stickers, five German temporary residence cards, five passports of the applicants and one rubber stamp of the German Embassy were recovered from his possession.

The police registered a case and initiated an investigation to unearth the entire syndicate.

During interrogation, Paramjeet claimed to have received fake visa stickers from unidentified auto drivers at Gurdwara Bangla Sahib and contacted suppliers only through a “Tanzanian WhatsApp number”.

“We tracked the auto driver. He said he received the parcel from two unidentified individuals on a two-wheeler at Mahinder Park Chowk, Rani Bagh, which was to be delivered at Gurudwara Bangla Sahib. The police identified the two-wheeler, which was being driven by Tajinder Singh. The police also arrested him,” the DCP said.

During interrogation, Tajinder revealed the roles and financial shares of each member. He disclosed the name of one Sunil Kumar Sood, who supplied fake visas at Rs 10,000 each. The police arrested Sunil, who disclosed that Uday Pal Singh used to provide fake visas. Uday Pal was nabbed from Tilak Nagar when he was delivering fake visa stickers.

“During a raid at his residence in Chander Vihar, the police recovered 25 foreign passports, 50 visa stickers, 14 rubber stamps, a laptop, a printer, a UV light machine among others,” the DCP said.

When the police checked his laptop, they found 8.5 GB of data related to fake visa stickers, suggesting the gang might have defrauded several individuals nationwide and could be involved in other similar cases. The probe is still underway, the official said.