Delhi Police has arrested five members of a gang for their alleged involvement in a fake visa scam and recovered 235 visa papers from their possession, officials on Monday said. Three people have been arrested from Punjab and two from Delhi, they said.

The arrested accused have been identified as Suraj Bahri (49), Ashwani Kumar (30), Jaswinder Singh (40), Manish Sharma (51), and Jitender Kumar (38), police said, adding Rs 8.5 lakh have been recovered from their possession.

“One Kulwinder Singh had field a complaint at Connaught Place police station and claimed that he met some persons at a mall in Chandigarh on January 20,” Deputy Commissioner Police (New Delhi) Devesh Kumar Mahla said.

The DCP said that the alleged person promised Singh a Canadian visa and took Rs 9.30 lakh from him in Chandigarh on the pretext of ‘documentation and formalities”.

“The total agreed-upon amount was Rs 18 lakh, with the remaining balance due after the visa was secured. Later, Kulwinder Singh got a call that his visa and plane tickets were ready and instructed him to come to Mahipalpur in Delhi to receive visa and ticket, and to pay the remaining Rs 9 lakh,” he added.

The officer said that on February 24, they directed him to reach Connaught Place, where he paid the remaining amount and an additional Rs 1.25 lakh for Canadian dollars.

“The accused asked Kulwinder to meet them near Dr RML Hospital gate in 20 minutes, where they would hand over the passport, tickets and Canadian dollars. However, upon reaching the location, Kulwinder found their phones switched off following which he realised that he had been cheated. An FIR was registered and an investigation was taken up,” the DCP said.

A police team formed to investigate the matter identified two suspects and traced their location to Jalandhar in Punjab.

Three accused identified as Suraj, Ashwani and Jaswinder were arrested from Jalandhar and they admitted to their involvement in the scam, police said.

The police recovered Rs 8.5 lakh in cash, mobile phones, electronic devices like laptops and printers, and forged stamps from their possession.

“Further investigation revealed that Suraj Bahri identified Manish Sharma in Delhi as the source of the fake visa.

Based on this information, police arrested Sharma. During questioning, Sharma, implicated Jitender Kumar, who provided him with the forged visas near Vikaspuri Metro Station. Kumar arranged visa papers, he was arrested too,” said the DCP.