Delhi Police arrested seven people and claimed to have busted a gang of counterfeit visas operating in west Delhi's Tilak Nagar area.
According to officials on Sunday, a substantial quantity of equipment used in manufacturing fake visas along with 14 Nepalese and two Indian passports have been seized from the house of the main accused.
The accused have been identified as 51 year old Manoj Monga, the main accused from Tilak Nagar. The others have been identified as 42 year old Shiva Gautam, 25 year old Naveen Rana, 65 year old Balbir Singh, 55 year old Jaswinder Singh, 27 year old Ashif Ali and a passenger named Sandeep.
While elaborating on the case, DCP (IGI Airport) Usha Rangnani said, “On the night of September 2, Sandeep from Haryana went to the departure immigration counter at Indira Gandhi International Airport here with an Indian passport.”
She added that he intended to depart for Rome in Italy, but during scrutiny of his documents a fake Swedish visa was found affixed on his passport and he was arrested, Rangnani said. Later, an investigation was launched after registering an FIR.
“Sandeep, who was looking to move abroad, had contacted Ashif Ali, a travel agent. Ali agreed to send Sandeep to a European country in lieu of Rs 10 lakh. Sandeep paid Rs seven lakh in two bank accounts of the agent and paid Rs 50,000 in cash,” Rangnani said.
Further, Ali and his associates -- Naveen Rana and Shiva Gautam -- arranged tickets and a Swedish visa for Sandeep's journey to Rome. “Ali, Rana and Gautam were arrested which led to the arrest of Balbir Singh and Jaswinder Singh,” she said.
Police said that Jaswinder Singh disclosed the name of Manoj Monga, who is an expert in design and preparation of fake stickers. Monga was arrested from his house in Tilak Nagar where he was running his fake visa business.
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 started providing fake appointment letters to his customers so that their visas look legitimate.
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 added.
