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.
With Ukraine closing its airspace after Russia launched a military operation in the country on Thursday, the Indian Embassy in Kiev has asked the Indian nationals to start moving towards the bordering areas so that they can be evacuated safely.
The Indian Embassy in Kiev stated that the helpline numbers are being set up at the respective check-points to facilitate evacuation through the borders. These control rooms will be based in Poland, Romania and Hungary and they will be managed by the Indian officials posted in those countries.
On Thursday, India's Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla had stated that Jaishankar has spoken to concerned officials in Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia for setting up camps on the border areas for evacuation of stranded Indian nationals.
An official spokesperson said the affected people or their relatives could call from within Punjab on helpline number 1100 and others from outside India on +91-172-4111905 for seeking information in this regard.
Amid crisis related to wearing of hijab in classrooms, an Amritdhari (baptised) Sikh girl was asked to remove her turban in the reputed Mount Carmel PU College here in accordance with the February 10 High Court's interim order. Some parents of the college also complained of being targeted after their daughters were asked to remove the hijab.
