Couple held for Rs 42 lakh immigration fraud from Vrindavan
Third accused Sachin Gupta still at large
The police claim to have arrested a couple, who along with their third accomplice, were booked under Sections 318 (4), 316 (2) and 61 (2) of the BNS Act and Section 13 of the Punjab Travel Professions Regulation Act at the city 1 police station in the first week of January this year.
The accused, identified as Saurav Gupta and his wife Pragati Gupta of Patiala, were arrested in Vrindavan where they were living under the guise of spiritually inclined usually attired in traditional religious attire. The third accused Sachin Gupta is still at large.
The police is presently investigating the immigration fraud case in which the accused had duped a complainant of Rs 42 lakh. More victims have started contacting the police for seeking action in their cases too.
SSP Gagan Ajit Singh informed that an investigation team led by Malerkotla DSP Manavjit Singh Sidhu arrested the duo from Vrindavan during a raid conducted on Tuesday morning on the basis of human and digital investigations. The duo was presented in a court in Malerkotla on Wednesday after seeking a transit remand from a UP court. Though the police have yet to announce the outcome of investigations in the case, preliminary probe revealed that the duo had allegedly been operating a “Kabootarbaazi” racket duping people on the pretext of sending them abroad on the basis of the forged documents. The accused used to charge amount upto Rs 50 lakh per person for various categories and nations including Canada, the United States, Australia and England.
Having learnt about registration of multiple cases against them in Punjab, the couple left their native city Patiala and started living at some unknown place.
Complainant Rohit Kumar of Ajit Nagar, Malerkotla, had blamed the accused, who were running — Canada PR Advisory Patiala — of duping him of over Rs 42 lakh, which was paid through various modes from July 2022 to July 2024.
Senior functionaries of Malerkotla, Sangrur and Patiala district police had handled the case during investigation. Intervention of the Punjab and Haryana High Court was also sought by stakeholders.
During investigation the police received information that the couple were living in a flat at Hare Krishna Orchid Society in the Sunrakh area of Vrindavan from where they were arrested on Tuesday morning. They were residing there with their two children and maintained a low profile posing as humble disciples to avoid attention of residents of the locality. The police suspect that they had continued their illegal activities in Vrindavan too. The accused were running a hospitality business allegedly by hiring around one dozen flats in Vrindavan.
DSP Manavjit Singh Sidhu said the police were presently focusing on the case related with forgery worth Rs 42 lakh, but efforts would be made to ascertain their involvement in other cases too.
“Though it is too early to arrive at any conclusion, we suspect that the accused might have duped many of amount running into crores,” said Sidhu.
Caption: The Malerkotla police during raid at Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh.
