A 43-year-old travel agent was arrested here for facilitating the illegal journey of a man to the United States via the "donkey route".
"The agent, Amit Arora, was arrested on Thursday. He is a habitual offender and has been previously involved in 10 similar cases of visa and passport fraud registered in Chandigarh," Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI Airport) Usha Rangnani said.
"A total of six agents have been arrested as of February 21, while 21 agents were held last year for involvement in donkey route cases," Rangnani added.
She further stated that on December 14, an Indian national, Maninder Pal Singh (20), arrived at Delhi's IGI Airport from the US as a deportee.
An FIR was registered, and an investigation was initiated. During questioning, Singh revealed that he had studied up to the 10th grade and wanted to go to the US for a better livelihood and easy money.
In 2023, he came into contact with an agent, Mandeep Singh (40), through a friend and sought his help in reaching the US. The agent assured him of an illegal journey in exchange for Rs 41 lakh, using multiple transit countries via the "donkey route."
Singh further disclosed that Mandeep Singh collected the payment in cash at his office in Kapurthala, Punjab, and arranged his travel.
"The passenger left India in October 2023, following the agent's instructions. His route included Kazakhstan, Dubai, Senegal, Libya, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico before illegally entering the US via the Mexico border in November 2024, after a 13-month journey," the DCP said.
During the trip, the agent provided a fake Guatemala visa and forged immigration stamps from multiple countries to disguise the illegal route. Upon reaching the US, Singh was instructed by the agent to remove pages from his passport that contained the fake visas and stamps, thereby tampering with the document. However, US authorities detected the tampering, detained him for two months, and subsequently deported him to India.
Mandeep Singh was later arrested, and during sustained interrogation, he named his associate, Amit Arora, who was also found involved in the case and arrested in Delhi, the DCP said.
"During interrogation, Arora confessed to working as an agent for several years. He operated a travel office in Sector 17 in Chandigarh and partnered with Mandeep Singh.
