Mastermind of fake visa syndicate arrested from Punjab after two months, say police

New Delhi: Nearly two months after busting an international immigration syndicate, the police has now arrested its mastermind who was absconding in a fraud case registered in 2021 for sending five Indian students on fake Australia visa, Delhi Police said on Wednesday.

The accused has been identified as Manjeet alias Babbu, a resident of Jalandhar Punjab. The IGI airport police had recently arrested all agents involved in this case but he was at large, they said.

According to police, in 2021, one complaint Gurnoor Singh had filed an FIR against Amit Gaur alleging that he contacted him through social media to give references of the clients for tourist visa and study visas in Australia. Gaur induced the complainant on the pretext of his connections with agents operating in India and abroad. Based on the inducement, the complainant referred five students from his IELTS training institute to the accused persons for an Australian tourist visa and paid Rs 18 lakh to the accused person and his associates to process their visa. However, the issued visa was verified as fake by the embassy.

Ravi Kumar Singh, DCP, IGI Airport said that earlier IGI Airport police had busted the entire syndicate in September and October this year. The first agent in this case identified as Amit Gaur was arrested on September, 11 this year. Later on in his instance, two agents Nitin Nazara and Vijay Kumar, both residents of Hoshiyarpur, Paschim Bengal, were arrested last month on October, 15.

"Nitin and Vijay were taken into custodial interrogation, it was revealed that agent Manjeet aka Babbu is the mastermind of the entire nexus spread across the country.

Since after the arrest of his two associates, Manjeet fled away from his residence and was evading his arrest for a long time. The police team conducted continuous raids at all the possible hideouts. Finally, he was intercepted and arrested from Punjab on November,13. Police have sealed the permanent resident Card of Polland and Italy of Manjeet Singh from his possession. Police have also seized one Visa from Mexico and five blank visas. He has been taken into police remand custody till November, 18," DCP IGI Airport Ravi Kumar Singh said.

The DCP further said tthey were operating across India and were constantly providing fabricated documents to the agents operating in Punjab and Haryana.