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Man held for sending people abroad on forged papers

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI JUNE 25. An alleged cheat who used to send people abroad on the basis of forged documents and was also planning to make a television series has been arrested by the Crime Branch of the Delhi police. The police recovered several forged documents from his hideout.

The police said a complaint was lodged by Firasat Ali, a resident of Rampur in Uttar Pradesh, with the Crime Branch mentioning the modus operandi of the suspect. A raid was conducted at the D-Block, Jahangirpuri, house of Mohammad Iqbal Qureshi on Monday from where he was arrested. Several photocopies of work permits from State of Qatar, and Ministry of Interior (United Arab Emirates), two Indian passports, 150 photocopies of Indian passports and several application forms of aspirants were recovered in the raid. Interrogation of the accused revealed that he used to charge Rs. 50,000 from each person for sending him abroad. He used to lure people from far-off areas.

The candidates were sent only to those countries where tourist visas were available without any restrictions such as Maldives and Thailand. Some of the aspirants went abroad and returned at the expiry of the visa.

Those who landed in foreign lands through Iqbal were received by his agents there. They used to charge money for providing shelter to the aspirants looking for jobs. Some persons were also sent to Middle East countries with the help of his agent Zafar Umar, a resident of Maldives.

It came to light that Iqbal has been involved in such operations since 1995. Two cases of cheating have been registered against him for similar offences. One is registered at Mondavi police station in Mumbai and other at Preet Vihar in East Delhi. Iqbal had started a travel agency in the name of Zeeshan Travels at Santacruz in Mumbai in 1995 where he began indulging such activities. After a case was registered, he fled from there and came to Delhi. He set up an office in the name of Crown Associates at Geeta Colony in East Delhi. In 1996, he was arrested.

However, once he came out of the jail, he shifted his base to Azadpur and floated a company in the name of D.M. International. Later, he changed it to Dadah International simply to avoid attention of police. Earlier, Iqbal began his criminal career acting as courier for smugglers. This gave him chance to go to foreign countries and establish contacts.

In fact, Iqbal had even managed to get some kind of acceptance in the film world. He had managed to become a member of the Indian Motion Pictures Association, based in Mumbai.

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