NEW DELHI: A 36-year-old Punjab-based agent was arrested for allegedly arranging illegal entry of a passenger to USA via “donkey route”, police said on Friday.
The accused has been identified as Naresh Kumar, a resident of Patiala in Punjab, police further said.
“On the intervening night of April 4 and 5, one Gursahib Singh, holding an Indian passport, was deported from the USA and reached IGI Airport. It was found that one of the passport pages had the signs of a removal visa and glue marks,” a senior police officer said.
During investigation, Singh disclosed that in 2007, his elder brother had migrated to Singapore in search of better employment opportunities. In 2018, he also travelled to Singapore on a work visa and worked there for around five to six years and returned to Amritsar in July last year.
After his return, some of his acquaintances advised him to travel to the United States, where he could potentially earn more money. Later, he came into contact with an agent Gurdev Singh, who promised to facilitate his illegal entry into the USA for Rs 20 lakh. The accused disclosed that he paid Rs 17 lakh cash and transferred the remaining Rs 3 lakh to a bank account provided by the agent, the officer said.
The agent and his associates organised Singh’s travel through various countries, including Heathrow (UK), Spain, Guatemala, Mexico, and Tijuana.
After reaching Tijuana, one of the agent’s associates met him and procured a forged Schengen visa, which was affixed to his passport. The same associate later facilitated his illegal entry into the USA via the donkey route, the officer said.
After entering the USA, the associate tampered with the page of the passport containing the fake visa by applying glue, concealing its presence before returning the passport to Singh. After a few days, Singh was apprehended by US authorities where he was detained for three months before being deported to India.
“Police conducted several raids at the possible hideouts of Gurdev. The bank account in which Rs 3 lakh was transferred belonged to Naresh who was nabbed from Patiala. It was found that Naresh and his brother had been operating as agents for several years,” Additional Commissioner of Police (airport) Usha Rangnani said.
Naresh and his brother came into contact with Gurdev and started working with him. Singh had approached Gurdev and Naresh was involved with Gurdev in arranging the tickets, visas for various countries, and the forged Schengen visa affixed to Singh’s passport, police said.
He also confirmed that following Singh’s illegal entry into the USA, one of their associates tampered with the fake visa page of the passport on their instructions. Efforts are being made to nab Gurdev, police added.