NEW DELHI: Delhi Police have arrested a man from Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, who used to lure people on pretext of sending them abroad by offering approved passports and Visas of foreign countries at lucrative prices, the police said on Sunday, adding, the accused, identified as Santosh Kumar Gupta (49), was allegedly an absconding fraud agent.
DCP (IGIA) Usha Rangnani, sharing details of the case said the matter came to a fore in October 2021 when a passenger, namely Rajkishore, approached the Immigration desk at IGI Airport, Delhi, seeking departure immigration to Ras Al-Khaimah city in the UAE.
“During scrutiny of his travel documents, it was found that a work visa of the Republic of South Africa, affixed on one of the pages of his passport was a fake, and had no security features,” the DCP said.
The passenger was detained and interrogated during which he revealed before the police that he had arranged the fake visa through an agent named Santosh Kumar for a payment of Rs 60,000. The passenger was arrested and the police initiated a probe into the matter.
During course of the investigation, the accused passenger Rajkishore disclosed that he had contacted Santosh Kumar Gupta to go to South Africa for work and he took away his passport for a few days and then returned the same with a Visa of Republic of South Africa affixed to it, charging Rs 60,000 for the illicit service.
“Efforts were made to nab the agent Santosh Kumar Gupta and several raids were conducted at the possible hideouts, but he managed to remain absconding since 2021,” the DCP said. Recently, the police received an tip-off, and accordingly a team was formed and tasked to nab the absconding culprit at the earliest.
“Gupta was nabbed from Kushinagar, UP,” the officer said, adding, the accused told the interrogators that he used to work in Dubai earlier and due this, Indian nationals would approach him for jobs as labourers in foreign countries. Following this, he planned to benefit out of people’s trust and started duping them.