4 PERSONS, INCLUDING MASTERMIND OF THE RACKET ARRESTED. AGENTS BASED AT EL SALVADOR AND MEXICO ALSO FOUND INVOLVED., 80 PASSPORTS OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES ALONG WITH LARGE NUMBER OF FORGED/INCRIMINATING DOCUMENTS, STAMPS, LAPTOPS SEIZED.SYNDICATE IS RUNNING UNDER THE GARB OF TOUR & TRAVEL BUSINESS AND IN ORDER TO DISGUISE THE LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES, ACCUSED PERSONS HAVE GOT REGISTERED A FIRM NAMED ‘HARSH TOUR AND TRAVEL’ BASED AT TILAK NAGAR, DELHI.

Face2News/New Delhi

With the arrest of 04 accused persons named (1) Girish Bhandari, 48 years, R/o Janakpuri, Delhi, (2) Himanshu Mehta, 23 years, R/o Hastsal Road, Uttam Nagar, Delhi, (3) Gagan Sharma, 22 years, R/o Mukhram Garden, Tilak Nagar, Delhi, (4) Ramesh Arya, 38 Years, R/o Om Vihar, Phase-III, Uttam Nagar, Delhi, AGS/Crime Branch has busted the international racket, involved in illegal ways of sending persons to foreign shores. Total 80 passports of various countries along with large number of forged/incriminating documents, stamps, laptops were seized.

INCIDENT AND TEAM OPERATION: Keeping in view the rapid surge in the incidents of fraud by organized syndicates on the pretext of sending people to foreign and large-scale scam running worldwide, Crime Branch was tasked to track down such syndicates and to take legal action against them.

Accordingly, a team comprising of Insp Pawan Kumar, Insp. Rakesh Kumar, SI Ajay, SI Mahabir Singh, ASI Govind, ASI Rajesh Kumar, HC Ravinder, HC Amit Kumar, HC Jitender, Ct. Radhay Shyam, Ct. Manish and Ct. Ashok under the close supervision of ACP Naresh Kumar was constituted by DCP Amit Goel and Joint CP S.D Mishra to work upon it.

After diligent ground work, a raid was conducted at Prem Nagar, Tilak Nagar, Delhi and 04 persons were arrested with large number of passports incriminating documents, currency, forged bank statements, letters pads of different firms and companies etc. Accordingly, a case vide FIR No. 111/2023, U/s 419/120B/420/465 /467/468/471/472/34 IPC & 12 Passport Act PS Crime Branch, Delhi has been registered in this regard.

MODUS OPERANDI: The accused persons were running the crime syndicate in the garb of Tour & Travel Business. As all the embassies are based in Delhi, this crime syndicate is being operated from Delhi having sub-agents spread all over the NCR. These sub-agents allure the people for sending them abroad and used to charge minimum amount of Rs.6 lacs for Schengen Visa (valid in 27 countries).

For illegal entry in USA through Mexico border, they used to charge a person around 27 Lacs. These sub-agents collect original passport of these victims and bank details, which they give to the persons operating from Delhi. These sub-agents charge hefty amount from aspirants.

Mr. Ravindra Singh Yadav, IPS Special Commissioner of Police, Crime, said, interrogation of arrested accused persons revealed that they were doing the illegal VISA business since last 10-12 years under the garb of running tour & travel business. This network is far flung and spread in many states including Haryana, Punjab, and Gujarat. The members of the racket were using highly encrypted application for communication and running this illegal business.

  After that, these main alleged persons based in Delhi create a chain of forged and fabricated documents including bank statements, fake ITRs etc. These documents are prepared with the help of high-end computer applications and editing softwares. Thereafter, they process the Visa on basis of these forged and fabricated documents. After getting the Tourist Visas, accused persons used to further charge the additional money from these victims in order to facilitate boarding.

ROUTE

Route 1.(Baku- Istanbul - EL Salvador Route)

The accused used to send persons in batch of 4-5 persons. Firstly, they book flight from India (New Delhi or Jaipur) to Baku (Azerbaijan) via Sharjah (UAE) in AIR ARBIA. There is 7-8 hours of transit at Sharjah (UAE) in this route. This route is preferred as Visa of Baku can be obtained within half hour on applying and it is valid for 30 days. PAX (persons) used to stay at Baku for 3 to 10 days, depending on tickets availability.

After that, they used to book tickets from Baku to Delhi, in fact return ticket are booked at the time of departure from India itself (it is mandatory to book return ticket in Tourist Visa). The return flight is booked from Turkish Airlines, which has route from Baku to India via Istanbul. At Istanbul during transit, the PAX are briefed to deliberately miss the flight to Delhi. After that, fresh tickets were booked for PAX from Istanbul to EL Salvador. This Turkish Airlines flight goes to Panama City. From Panama City, new flight of COPA Airlines is taken which goes to EL Salvador.

After reaching EL Salvador, PAX stay there for 2-3 days and at this place, two persons namely ‘Max’ and ‘Gary Max’ used to assist them for further journey. From this place, PAX were provided Car/Taxi and by crossing Guatemala to reach Mexico Border at Tapachula. At Tapachula, they are provided a temporary card for staying in Mexico with the help of agents. After that, PAX are taken to two main border points of Mexico and USA i.e TJUANA and MEXICALL and illegal entry is facilitated by agents.

ROUTE 2. (Europe-Mexico Route)

In this route, PAX are facilitated by applying for Schengen Visa (valid in 27 countries). After reaching the Schengen countries, PAX used to wait there for 3-4 days. Some people are staying in Europe only as there are some countries in Europe like Portugal and others, which allow prolonged stay by paying certain amount as tax.

In this way, these people extend their stay and try to illegally stay in Europe. Other PAX who are bound for USA, depart from Schengen countries to Mexico City. As Mexico facilities Tourist Visa on arrival in their country. There is a direct flight from New Delhi to Mexico City, but airlines of most of the International flights do not allow these PAX by looking to their profile from New Delhi. After that, PAX were taken to two main border points of Mexico and USA i.e TJUANA and MEXICALL and illegal entry is facilitated by agents.

KNOW THE ACCUSED: 

Accused Girish Bhandari, 48 years, R/o Janakpuri, Delhi is the mastermind of this illegal syndicate. In Delhi since 2012-2013, he tried many business ventures and finally started the business of securing VISA illegally. He selected his team cleverly and included Himanshu Mehta, Ramesh Arya and Gagan Sharma. In order to disguise the law enforcement agencies, they opened tour & travel agency in the name of ‘HARSH TOUR AND TRAVELS’ at Tilak Nagar, Delhi.

Himanshu Mehta, 23 years, R/o Hastsal Road, Uttam Nagar, Delhi is working with Girish Bhandari for last 01 year. He used to work to do flight booking, hotel bookings, insurance, client meetings related task. Girish Bhandari informed him that, he has Visa and immigration business. He worked in a travel agency earlier and has knowledge of handling Visa related international bookings.

Gagan Sharma, 22 years, R/o Mukhram Garden, Tilak Nagar, Delhi and accused Ramesh Arya used to collect cash and passports from different persons as told by Girish Bhandari. Mostly, they used to call on Whatapp and through other apps in order to maintain secrecy. He used to send pictures of a currency note i.e Rs.10 to Mr.Girish Bhandari on Whatapp, who used to share the same with agents based in Delhi for collection of cash and passport.

Ramesh Arya, 38 Years, R/o Om Vihar, Phase-III, Uttam Nagar, Delhi and accused Gangan Sharma used to collect cash and passports from different persons as told by Girish Bhandari.

RECOVERY: 80 passports of various countries. 2. Large number of forged bank statements of different Banks.,  Large number of forged and fabricated documents., Cash amount of Rs 3.5 lacs, Car made Maruti Swift., High-end mobile phones, otal 17 stamps prepared in the name of different firms /companies. One External and one internal hard disk containing various forged/fabricate receipts.