Man booked for duping immigration company owner of Rs 25 lakh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, March 30

The Khanna police yesterday registered a case against a man who duped a man of Rs 25 lakh on the pretext of getting issued a ‘manpower licence’ from the Union Ministry of External Affairs. The suspect after taking money from the complainant, instead of getting the licence issued in the name of the victim, got the same issued on his own name.

The suspect has been identified as Gurpreet Singh, alias Tinku, a resident of Khanna.

The complainant, Pardeep Kumar, of Ikolaha village, near Khanna, told the police that he had been running RK Immigration firm since 2018 which provides training on visa interview to those aspiring to go abroad. Earlier, Gurpreet was also working with the firm. In 2019, he left the job.

In 2020, the suspect contacted him and said due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ministry of External Affairs launched a new scheme under which one could get the ‘manpower licence’ at Rs 25 lakh, whereas earlier, an applicant was supposed to pay Rs 70 lakh to Rs 80 lakh for the same. After procuring the licence, one could supply manpower to foreign countries through the ministry, the complainant said.

He alleged that “After taking money from me, the suspect managed to get the licence issued on his own name and he submitted fake certificates to procure the same. After I got to know about the fraud, I asked him to return the money but he refused to do so. In September 2023, he lodged a police complaint and after investigation, the Khanna police registered a case against the suspect on Friday”.

The complainant alleged that he had filed several complaints to seek action against the suspect but the police failed to act. It was only when he met the then SP (investigation), Khanna, Pragya Jain, and apprised her of the dilly-dallying approach of the police, she, after verifying his allegations, had decided to conduct an inquiry in his favour.

The investigating officer, ASI Shamsher Singh, said after registering a case, further probe was launched by the police in the matter.

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