NEW DELHI : With the arrest of eight persons, including the kingpin, Delhi Police's Crime Branch on Wednesday claimed to have busted a gang involved in making fake visas.
The gang was operating from Delhi's Connaught Place area. The police have also recovered 293 passports, including four from Bangladesh and two from Nepal.
The accused have been identified as Baldev Raj alias Guruji, S.R. Krishnan, Sunil Bisht, N.B. Joshi, Ansh Madan, P.K. Shukla, Balihar Singh and Kuldeep Singh.
The gang was also involved in forgery of bank account statements, I-T returns and other supporting documents required for securing visa of different countries.
Baldev Raj, the mastermind, had contested elections in Punjab nearly two decades ago before moving to Delhi in 2003. In Delhi, he tried his hands at many business ventures before settling with issuing fake visas, the police said.
According to Ravindra Singh Yadav, Special Commissioner of Police (Crime), a police team was tasked with tracking down the syndicates which were committing fraud on the pretext of sending people abroad.
"Acting on specific inputs, a raid was conducted at Connaught Place and other places, and during the search, large number of passports, incriminating documents, currency, forged bank statements, stamps, letter heads etc. were recovered, " Yadav said.
Accordingly, the police registered an FIR under the relevant sections of law after arresting eight persons during the raids.
During interrogation, the accused persons disclosed that they were into illegal visa business for the last 10-12 years under the garb of running a tour and travel business by the name of 'Green Tour and Travel'.
"Their network was spread in many states, including Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh etc. The members of the racket were using highly-encrypted mobile applications like WhatsApp for communication and running their illegal business, " the officer said.