Fake visa factory busted in Delhi’s Tilak Nagar, 3 arrested
The airport unit of the Delhi Police has busted a fake visa-producing factory in West Delhi’s Tilak Nagar and arrested a 51-year-old man running the unit where forged travel documents were being produced in mass quantities to provide to passengers for travelling to foreign countries. Police also arrested two agents who were part of the alleged network.
Police also conducted raids early last week at the illegal factory during which a huge cache of equipment to produce forged documents was seized. “Some of the confiscated items include 30 fake visa stickers issued under various names, 23 rubber stamps from different countries and fake permanent residency cards from Italy.
Three wooden and four metal embossing dyes, as well as an embossing machine with UV features, were also recovered,” said DCP (IGI) Usha Rangnani.
The team also recovered a large number of Nepalese passports, two Indian passports, large quantities of gumming sheets, lamination sheets, watermark prints and printed envelopes.
Police busted the factory while they were probing the arrest of a Kurukshetra resident named Sandeep who was detained and later arrested for producing a fake Swedish visa at the Departure Immigration Counter of the IGI airport on September 2.
“He held an Indian passport and was supposed to fly to Rome. During scrutiny of his documents, a fake Swedish visa was found affixed to his passport. A case was lodged at IGI Airport Police Station,” the officer said.
During questioning, Sandeep disclosed that he wanted to go abroad for a better livelihood and met with an agent named Ashif Ali through one Manjot who belongs to a nearby village. “The agent agreed to send him to a European country in lieu of Rs 10 lakh. The passenger then deposited Rs 7 lakh in two bank accounts and paid Rs 50,000 in cash in advance to agents Ashif Ali, Naveen Rana and Shiva Gautam for the fake visa, all of whom were subsequently arrested,” the officer said.
Further probe led to the arrest of freelance agents Balbir Singh and Jaswinder Singh. “Balbir revealed that the fake visas were produced by Manoj Monga, an expert in graphic design who had been running the operation from his home,” the DCP said.
Police arrested Monga who, during his questioning, said that he started the illegal operation after being approached by Jaideep Singh, another accused, five years ago. “Singh provided Monga with equipment and orders for fake visas,” an officer said.
Once Monga became highly skilled in developing fake travel documents, he started receiving orders from freelance agents on a demand basis, police said.