Delhi News: The Delhi Police on Sunday busted a gang of counterfeit visas operating in west Delhi’s Tilak Nagar area and arrested at least seven people.
The officials said that a huge quantity of equipment used in manufacturing fake visas has been seized from the house of the main accused. Besides this, police also recovered 14 Nepalese and two Indian passports.
According to the police, the accused have been identified as Manoj Monga (51), the main accused from Tilak Nagar, Shiva Gautam (42), Naveen Rana (25), Balbir Singh (65), Jaswinder Singh (55), Ashif Ali (27) and a passenger, Sandeep.
Speaking on the action against the fake visa gang, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) (IGI Airport) Usha Rangnani said that on the night of September 2, Sandeep from Haryana went to the departure immigration counter at Indira Gandhi International Airport in the national capital with an Indian passport. He intended to depart for Rome in Italy, but during scrutiny of his documents, a fake Swedish visa was found affixed to his passport, and he was arrested, the police official said.
Following the arrest, an FIR was filed and an investigation was launched, she said. Sandeep, who was looking to move abroad, had contacted Ashif Ali, a travel agent, police said. Ali agreed to send Sandeep to a European country in lieu of Rs 10 lakh.
The police further informed that Sandeep paid Rs seven lakh in two bank accounts of the agent and paid Rs 50,000 in cash. Ali and his associates—Naveen Rana and Shiva Gautam—arranged tickets and a Swedish visa for Sandeep’s journey to Rome, the DCP said.
The revelations made by Sandeep led to the busting of a fake visa racket operating out of the national capital for the last five years. According to an NDTV report, the alleged racket had produced four to five thousand forged visas so far and had made Rs 300 crore doing so.
According to the police, the gang was making 30-60 fake visas of several countries, including those in Europe, every month and could prepare a visa sticker in just 20 minutes. Every fake visa made by the gang was sold for ₹ 8-10 lakh, the NDTV report stated. The racket used Telegram, Signal, and WhatsApp for communication and had an intricate web of local agents who would connect with people seeking jobs in foreign countries.
Ali, Rana, and Gautam were arrested, which led to the arrest of Balbir Singh and Jaswinder Singh, she said. Following his arrest, Jaswinder Singh disclosed the name of Manoj Monga, who is an expert in the design and preparation of fake stickers, police said. Monga was arrested from his house in Tilak Nagar, where he was running his fake visa business, they said.
According to police, five years ago, Monga came in contact with Jaideep Singh, and they established an illegal factory for manufacturing fake visas at Monga’s house. Later, Monga also began providing fake appointment letters to his customers so that their visas looked legitimate, the DCP said.
During the investigation, police said that 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 wooden dyes of different embassies, four metal dyes of different countries, 14 original Nepalese passports, two original Indian passports, and many other items were recovered from Monga’s house.
Further investigation in the case is underway, and efforts are underway to nab the other associates, police further stated.
(With PTI Inputs)