CHANDIGARH: The Punjab Police have arrested the mastermind behind the fake offer letter scam, Brijesh Mishra. The scam lured hundreds of Indian students aspiring to study in Canada.
Sources said that on June 24, Mishra was taken into custody after he landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi. Mishra, who hails from Thalwada in Darbhanga of Bihar, had boarded a flight from Toronto on June 22.
Talking with TNIE, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police of Jalandhar Harinder Singh Gill said, Brijesh Mishra was detained as soon as he landed at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, as a look-out circular (LOC) had been earlier issued against him in connection with cases registered against him. He was then handed over to a team of Jalandhar Police.
"We took him into custody on June 24, and yesterday (June 25), he was produced in local court in Jalandhar, and we got his seven-day police remand. Now we are questioning him as nine cases were registered against him in 2023 on charges of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy in division number 6 police station," he said.
Gill further said that he is being questioned about others involved in this racket, how he made these fake offer letters of colleges, how many students were contacted, and how much money he charged the victims.
"We will also be calling the parents of these students who filed the cases against the accused and record their statements, as well as ask them whether their children have been deported or still in Canada, and if so, doing what," he said.
Gill said that during the interrogation, Mishra confessed to having remained in the custody of the Canadian authorities for approximately one and a half years as he was detained. Then, after he was released from detention, he stayed for a few months in Surrey, British Columbia, before returning to India.
On June 23, 2023, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) apprehended Mishra while he was trying to sneak into the country illegally. The CBSA conducted a detailed investigation and zeroed in on Brijesh Mishra’s company Education and Migration, and slapped five charges, including those for counselling misrepresentation, unauthorised representation or advice for consideration, under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
In March 2023, approximately 700 students were issued deportation notices by the CBSA over fraudulent offer letters that had been provided to them by Mishra while processing their study visas.
Mishra has been accused of running a fake offer letter racket through his consultancy, Education and Migration Services, based in Jalandhar. He allegedly duped hundreds of students between 2016 and 2020 by issuing forged admission letters of colleges in Canada, as scores of students discovered the fraud only after reaching Canada, where they were denied entry or deported when immigration authorities flagged their documents as fake.
