Two men allegedly running a fake visa racket have been arrested at Saket in South Delhi. The accused mainly targeted Nepalese nationals seeking jobs abroad.
Tulsi Pandeya, a resident of Majnu Ka Tila, lodged a complaint on May 25 alleging that she along with eight others was cheated of Rs.34 lakh by a gang of cheats. While looking for a placement in New Zealand, she came across one Ashutosh Sharma, who promised to arrange visas for her and other applicants through his contact named Amit.
They first met at an eating joint in Saket. The accused claimed that they could arrange visas for New Zealand and Canada. As her relatives were also interested in jobs abroad, she agreed to pay their commission.
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Ashutosh allegedly demanded Rs.4 lakh for the New Zealand and Rs.3 lakh for the Republic of Dominican visas. Accordingly she paid Rs.34 lakh for nine persons. He handed over the visas to her the next day. However, on verification the visas were found fake.
Acting on the complaint, the police registered a case and arrested the accused.
They were identified as Inder Sharma, who had been posing as Ashutosh, and Amit Jatana. The other gang members have been identified as Abdullah, Virender Sharma and Chauhan, the police said. Abdullah and Virender operate from Mumbai.
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During interrogation, Inder and Amit purportedly disclosed that they had been running the racket since 2008. They mainly targeted Nepalese nationals and extracted money from them by supplying visas and forged job-offer letters of different international companies.
When the victims would not be allowed to travel on fake visas, the accused would take them to various cities in India and even to Singapore and Hong Kong and desert them there.
The police claim to have seized several Nepalese passport, Rs.3.8 lakh in cash, bank deposit slips and a luxury car.