The accused disclosed that they were running a tour and travel business.
The Delhi Police on Wednesday busted a fake visa racket and arrested eight people for allegedly running it from Connaught Place in central Delhi, police said on Wednesday.
The crime branch of the Delhi Police received information regarding a gang that was operating from Connaught Place and other areas. Later, a raid was conducted at many places and the 8 accused were arrested, Special Commissioner of Police (crime) Ravindra Singh Yadav said.
The accused persons were in the business of securing visas from different countries for the last 10 to 12 years and have expertise in preparing forged documents, police said.
The aspirants were mostly unemployed youth and they wanted to go abroad in search of employment.
Such aspirants don't have valid documents for securing a visa. They used to prepare forged documents through skilled persons and based on the documents, aspirants used to apply for visas, police said, adding that the accused were charging them hefty amounts.
The accused have been identified as Baldev Raj (54), Ansh Madan (23), Balihar Singh (43) and Kuldeep Singh (56), residents of Haryana, Shiva Rama Krishnan (39), a resident of Vasant Kunj, Sunil Bisht (40) and Nanda Ballabw Joshi (43), residents of Mayur Vihar, Phase-3, and Pankaj Kumar Shukla (30), a resident of Azamgarh in UP, police said.
The illegal visa syndicate was being operated by Raj and Krishnan assisted by Neeraj, Bisht and Shukla.
The accused disclosed that they were running a tour and travel business under the name 'Green Tour and Travel'. This network was spread in several states, including Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, UP etc, Yadav said.
The members of the racket were using highly encrypted mobile applications for communication. Many members of this syndicate have a criminal background, Yadav said.
Raj was the mastermind of this syndicate. He also contested an election in Punjab before moving to Delhi in 2003. Krishnan is among the main masterminds of this illegal business having links with Punjab and Gujarat-based agents.
He used to prepare forged bank account statements, forged and fabricated income tax returns, fake company documents of clients and other documents required for processing the visa, they said.
Bisht was previously involved in 27 cases related to visa fraud in 2010. He joined Raj in 2012.
Balihar used to do kirtan/bhajan before joining this group. He came in contact with Bisht in 2021 and started working as an agent. Being a spiritual personality, many people were having faith in him and he arranged for several clients who were aspirants of going abroad, police said.
A total of 293 passports, including four Bangladeshi and two Nepali, a large number of forged documents, cash worth Rs five lakh etc. were recovered from their possession, police added.