Between June 26 and 30, the immigration officials at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) arrested seven persons who had visited Malaysia on tourist visa but overstayed for years, in some cases more than a decade.
Most of the accused, who have booked under various sections of the Passports Act, are from Tamil Nadu and worked in Malaysia. Prior to their return to India, their visas were altered illegally, said the police.
The immigration officials suspect that there is a ring of touts operating in Chennai and Malaysia, who allegedly lure people by promising them lucrative jobs. However, they are taken on a short-stay visa. Once in Malaysia, they are forced to work illegally before they are sent back with fake visa stamps.
The airport police are questioning the accused to identify and track the kingpins of this racket. Two of the people arrested are Venkatesan Jayasimha, 23, from Cuddalore and Sathesh Sethu, 28, from Methupaly. They told the police that they had gone to Malaysia in December 2017 on a 30-day visit visa on the advise of a tout.
The others have been identified as Mahimairaj Sathish Kumar, 28, from Namakkal; Josephin Selvarasu, 34, from Thanjavur; Senthilvelan Thiruvasagamoorthy, 40; and Onkar Singh, 23, from Ludhiana. “They, too, had similar stories. Some of them even stayed for 14 years before returning to India,” the police said.
Soon after landing in Malaysia, the accused were put to work. Local touts in Malaysia helped them evade officials for a fee.
“During their stay, the accused would send money to their family through illegal means,” said the police. When they are ready to return home, they have to pay anywhere between 1,000 and 8,000 Malaysian ringgits to the tout to get fake visa stamps on their passports.
