Police have arrested six people from Delhi’s Tilak Nagar for allegedly running a fake visa racket; an operation that was very complex; police were able to bring down an operation that had been issuing fake visas of several countries including some of the features that can only be duplicated using some special dyes, stickers, and stamping for the past five years.
Police seized 30 fake visas, three Italian PR cards, and 16 passports during the raid of the premises where the visas were made, the officials added.
Usha Rangnani, deputy commissioner of police at the IGIA said they stumbled on the racket while investigating a fake Shengen visa issued originating from Sweden, presented by a passenger seeking to fly to Rome from the IGIA airport on September 2.
Sandeep Singh the passenger now under arrest, revealed the name of the man that facilitated the visa as Ashif Ali. Singh said Ali, now 27, told him that he would get him a visa to a European nation if he paid ₹10 lakh.
The main accused behind the racket said to be 51 year old Manoj Monga who resides in Tilak Nagar. The other persons arrested were Balbir Singh, 65 years old, a resident of Nangloi, Shiva Gautam 42 years old, from Nepal, Naveen Rana 25 years cast from one of the cities in Haryana and Jaswinder Singh 55 years from another city of Haryana.
Police believe that the gang has been forging the visas for five years according to the investigators. Quoting details and confessions that it obtained during the interrogation of the six, the DCP said that monga was recruited five years ago by jaswinder singh to work together to forge visas.
Most of these banners and signboards were designed by Monga, who was conversant with digital design tools such as Photoshop and Corel Draw for almost two decades. It was also gravely alleged that Singh supplied the required items and substances which include embossing dyes, rubber stamps, visa stickers, stationery and other office items such as electronics.
Such rackets are said to be working because the check at the time of departure by immigration agents is a visual check to identify the special features, some of which are similar to those on currency notes. Visas can only be validated by the countries that issue them. “Often, the immigration officials check for fake visas using an ultraviolet machine. There are also liasion officers in every country who are stationed at the airport and have specialisation to verify fake visas the officer said.
The officer said that in some cases, the fraudsters have been detected at destination countries and deportation procedure is followed.
According to Rangnani, Monga issued clients forged appointment letters in the name of authentic immigration service agencies with the intention of giving them an impression that their visas are being made genuinely procured. The DCP said that even the traveler caught also believed that his visa was original.
An average, Monga could churn out a fake visa sticker in 20-25 minutes, said a person aware of the case who did not wish to be identified. “Thousands of people must have travelled on these fake visas. The accused are being questioned about the details of their customers,, ” said this person.
DCP said that the arrested people under sections 218-4, 336-3, 340-2 of the BNS and Section 12 of the Passports Act for forgery. Agencies across the country have been fighting several forms of immigration rackets. The lid on one major such operation was blown late last year when a plane full of Indians travelling on fake documents was held back in France and turned around.
This sort of operations very often rested on forged documents and relied on travel agents and touts as the gateway between customers, often denied visa on the strict grounds that several nations judge applications.
