Delhi gang that made Rs 300 cr from 5,000 fake visas in 5 years in police net

The detention of a youth from Haryana at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on September 2 has blown the lid off a fake visa racket worth several crores in the national capital. Seven persons have been arrested.

The racketeers had reportedly been operating out of west Delhi’s Tilak Nagar for the past five years, produced 4,000–5,000 forged visas, and made a Rs 300 crore from the “business”.

Airport arrest

The youth, Sandeep, went to the departure immigration counter at IGI Airport with an Indian passport on the night of September 2, DCP (IGI Airport) Usha Rangnani told news agency PTI. He had a ticket to Rome in Italy.

However, a careful scrutiny of his documents revealed a fake Swedish visa affixed on his passport. He was arrested at once and an investigation was launched after registering an FIR, Rangnani said.

Travel agent in net

During questioning, it was revealed that Sandeep, who was looking to move abroad, had contacted a travel agent named Ashif Ali (27), according to police.

Sandeep reportedly claimed that several people from his village had gone abroad using the same counterfeit visas.

Two more arrests

Ali allegedly agreed to send Sandeep to a European country in lieu of Rs 10 lakh, while Sandeep allegedly deposited Rs 7 lakh in two bank accounts of the agent and paid Rs 50,000 in cash.

Ali and his associates — Naveen Rana (25) and Shiva Gautam (42) — arranged tickets and a Swedish visa for Sandeep’s journey to Rome, the DCP told PTI. Ali, Rana, and Gautam were the first to be arrested.

They reportedly led the police to two more gang members, Balbir Singh (65) and Jaswinder Singh (55). The latter further disclosed the name of Manoj Monga, an expert in designing and making fake stickers and the prime accused.

Prime accused a graphic designer

Fake visas for several countries were reportedly made in a factory in Tilak Nagar which was operated by Monga, who was arrested from his house in Tilak Nagar. He reportedly has a diploma in graphic designing.

Monga apparently met a man called Jaideep Singh some five years ago. The latter reportedly encouraged him to use his graphic designing skills to make counterfeit visas and even provided him with the necessary equipment.

Later, Monga also started providing fake appointment letters to his customers so that their visas look legitimate, the DCP said.

Equipment, passports seized

All that equipment, along with 14 Nepalese and two Indian passports, have been seized from Monga’s house, the police told PTI.

The seized items included 30 fake sticker visas issued in the names of different persons, 23 rubber stamps of various countries, three fake Permanent Residency (PR) cards of Italy, three wood dyes of different embassies, and four metal dyes of different countries.

Lakhs in minutes

The fraudsters allegedly made some 30 to 60 fake visas every month and could create a fake visa sticker in a mere 20 minutes. Each fake visa was allegedly sold for Rs 8–10 lakh.

The racket allegedly also involved a complex net of local agents across regions who would bring in people seeking jobs abroad.

Further investigation is underway and efforts are being made to nab the other associates, police added.

(With agency inputs)