NEW DELHI: A fake visa appointment racket was busted by the Crime Branch and three people werearrested who used to extort large sums of money from foreign job seekers, promising them appointment letters and visas to various countries after impersonating as VFS Global employees.
VFS Global, headquartered in Zurich and Dubai, provides governments with administrative solutions for processing passport applications and visa consular services. The arrested accused, Ritesh Tiwari (28), Chandan Baranwal (26), and Dr Azad Pratap Rao (23), are all residents of Kushinagar in UP.
ACP (Crime) Sanjay Bhatia said a case was registered following a complaint by a VFS official in which he alleged that Parveen Sahoo and Ajeet Sahoo, through social media platforms, were falsely representing themselves as VFS officials and issued forged visa appointment letters in exchange for large sums of money from applicants.
“The accused misused the VFS logo in their online profiles and communicated with victims via fraudulent email IDs,” the Additional CP said. “All the online profiles used by the alleged persons on different social media platforms were identified where it was found that they were using the VFS Logo by claiming themselves to be the authorised representatives of VFS Global,” Bhatia said during a presser.
According to the officer, the accused were accepting hefty amounts on behalf of VFS from the gullible victims and visa seekers for providing visa-related services for different countries. They used to contact people desperate visa seekers through social media and told them that they would provide the letter for every category. Basically, they targeted the people who needed employment visas, as it is difficult to get, Bhatia said.
They used to take the visa appointment letter of the tourist/business category and edit it into the employment category before sending it to the victims, he said.
They charged money for the same from individuals who thought that they were getting genuine employment visas. Details of six social media accounts and sim cards used by the accused were obtained, Bhatia said.
Barnwal, having fake name Parveen Sahoo, was apprehended from UP on November 6. Baranwal revealed that he was aided by Tiwari and Rao, police said.
Baranwal and Tiwari collaborated to alter genuine appointment letters, changing visa categories, while Rao provided bank account details where the defrauded money was transferred. Both Tiwari and Rao were subsequently arrested, Bhatia stated.
Tiwari has an MBA degree from Gorakhpur in UP. He has also worked in an immigration consultancy. He, along with Baranwal, used to contact victims through social media and cheated them, police said. Baranwal has a good knowledge of computers. He forged the visa appointment letter and sent these to the victims, they said, adding that Rao is a diploma holder in optometry and runs his shop at Kushinagar.