Noida police busts fake visa racket, nabs 1; seizes passports, forged documents seized

Noida, Mar 9 (PTI) The Noida Police has busted a gang allegedly involved in forging visas and duping people on the promise of sending them abroad for jobs, arresting one person, an officer said on Monday.

Saksham Sharma, alias Bittu Sharma, was arrested from ATS Road near Sai Nursery area on Sunday, he said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central Noida) Shakti Mohan Avasthy said the action was taken following a complaint lodged at the Bisrakh Police Station on March 7.

"In the complaint, the informant stated that the accused, Saksham Sharma alias Bittu Sharma and Rajiv Sharma alias Surendra, had opened an office in the name of 'Sky Visa Venture' at Gaur City Mall," Avasthy told PTI.

According to the police, the accused used to contact people through phone calls and other means and promised to arrange work visas for sending them abroad.

"They would obtain passports from the victims on the pretext of arranging work visas, but later prepared fake visas and sent them to the customers through WhatsApp," the DCP said.

The accused allegedly cheated many people of lakhs of rupees, he said.

In the course of the investigation, the police seized eight passports, 90 visiting cards, 24 photocopies of fake visas, six blank visa envelopes, 37 letter pads of Sky Visa Venture, one firm registration document, two firm certificates, two counterfeit seals, three mobile phones and Rs 47,000 in cash from the possession of Sharma.

Sharma allegedly used the name "Bittu", while his associate Surendra used the alias "Rajeev Sharma", the police said.

The gang promised to arrange work visas for countries such as Finland, Poland and Russia and collected passports from their targets, and charged between Rs 80,000 and Rs 1 lakh from each of them. When the applicants demanded their visas and passports, the accused would allegedly send forged visas to them through mobile phones.

The police said the fraud came to light after some victims verified the documents with embassies and found the visas to be fake.

During interrogation, Sharma admitted that he was involved in forging visas.

The police said the accused were earlier booked for similar frauds at the Medical police station in Meerut district and in Panipat district of Haryana.

A hunt for Rajiv Sharma, alias Surendra, is still on.

"Teams have been formed to trace and arrest the other accused involved in the racket," Avasthy said. PTI COR KIS VN VN