New Delhi, July 25 (IANS) Two people, working as passport agents, were arrested for duping people on the pretext of sending them abroad, a Delhi Police official said Monday.
The accused, identified as Jaswinder Singh and Harmesh Chand, were involved in arranging fake Russian visas along with their counterparts in UP and Punjab. They were operating in rural areas of Punjab and were involved in settling down people in Russia by unfair means.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, IGI Airport, Tanu Sharma said a complaint was received from the IGI Airport Immigration Department that one passenger came to immigration counter seeking departure immigration to Abu Dhabi.
During scrutiny of his travel documents, it was found that a Russian business visa affixed on his passport was fake with no security features.
During interrogation, the passenger disclosed that earlier he wanted to go to Russia for work purposes and came in contact with an agent, namely Jaswinder Singh, who took Rs 1 lakh from him and provided him with a fake Russian visa.
"In view of the scam of duping people on the pretext of sending them to foreign countries and to bust the whole nexus, a team was constituted with the specific tasks to locate the movement of the accused travel agent and to nab him," the DCP said.
The team, after technical and manual surveillance, zeroed down on Jaswinder Singh and subsequently arrested him.
"He disclosed that he was working as a sub agent and was in contact with the main agent Harmesh Chand for the last 2 years. He was working as a commission agent for Harmesh Chand, who affixed a fake visa on the passport of the passenger," the official said.
During sustained interrogation, it was found that Harmesh Chand was the mastermind of the entire racket. The police team then traced the location of the accused to Jalandhar from where he was nabbed.
The official said that Harmesh Chand disclosed that he used to arrange fake visas from an agent who is a resident of Varanasi. Further efforts are being made to trace and arrest him, the official added.
A day earlier, Sonia Gandhi asked party chiefs Sidhu in Punjab, Ganesh Godiyal in Uttarakhand, Ajay Kumar Lallu in Uttar Pradesh, Girish Chodankar in Goa and Nameirakpam Loken Singh in Manipur to resign. Sidhu, once a Chief Minister aspirant, faced defeat from his stronghold Amritsar (East) seat.
Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, representing the family members, submitted before a bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana that on March 10, a protected witness in the case had been attacked and the state government did not file an appeal challenging the bail granted to Misra in the case.
The SAD also announced the expulsion of Kalka from the primary membership of the party, besides dissolving the party's Delhi unit. It also announced the formation of a five-member ad hoc committee headed by veteran leader Avtar Singh Hit, and comprising Harinder Singh Kaypee, Bhupinder Singh Anand, Gurdev Singh Bhola, and Ravinder Singh Khurana.
In December last year, the Supreme Court had said it expects a fair investigation and investigating agencies should be neutral, as it asked Delhi Police to conclude the probe, by December 15, in a case against Singh.
Amid a call for leadership change in the party, Congress General Secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has called a meeting of party leaders on Tuesday to find out the reasons for the defeat. The Congress could only get just over 2 per cent votes and two seats in the Uttar Pradesh polls.
The plea argued that the high court granted bail without considering the heinous nature of the crime and also in the backdrop of overwhelming evidence against the accused in the charge sheet. The plea further argued that there is likelihood of the accused tampering with the witnesses and causing obstruction in justice.
