In Mumbai , on Thursday the Crime branch officials busted an interstate gang and arrested five members. On account of a case filed on them for scamming more than 250 aspirants from across the country with fake employment offers from foreign countries like Azerbaijan, Oman, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Russia. They were also accused of charging between ₹50,000 and ₹1 lakh to each individual in order to provide them with fake visas.
Image source : Anshuman Poyrekar Hindustan times
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Case Investigations and Arrests :
Deputy Commissioner of police , Raj Tilak Roshan of the crime branch gave his statement that While investigating the gang , the police learnt that in May this year the gang opened their first office in New Delhi but after being raided by the police they fled to Mumbai and opened a new office in Ballard Pier in June , called “Bombay International Consultancy”.
On September 18 , the gang closed their office when the victim found out about their operations and started visiting their office to complain about issuing fake visas. Roshan also added that on October 10 , they opened another branch named “Indian Overseas Placement Service”in Sahar , Andheri East .
Identity of arrested crimnals :
Amitosh Shravankumar Gupta,40, Rahul Kumar Shivan Chaudhary,22, and Lucknow and Gaya, Bihar natives, respectively, are identified as the crimnals accused along with Rohit Maheshwar Prasad Sinha,33, a Mumbai resident, and Ashish Kumar Mungeshwar Mahato,30, from Delhi.
Currently the police are verifying their names as they used fake identities and names to interact with the victims .
Sixty-three passports, seven forged visas for Azerbaijan, stickers and other documents, five computers and other equipment, a colour printer, five landlines, seven mobile phones, an internet connection, a router, ten debit cards from various banks, bank cheque books, passbooks and several letterheads from the company have all been seized by the police.
All of this took place because the victims found that their visas were fake, a few filed a case in Mumbai crime branch and registered the case in the MRA Marg police station.
Sinha, one of the accused, was released on bail from Delhi prison on September 2 in a similar case and began operating in Delhi. While two other suspects wanted in the Mumbai case are held up in Delhi prison and they also learned during investigation they have been responsible for similar crimes in Delhi .
After launching an investigation, Crime Branch Unit 5 focused on the Andheri office and located the defendants. On Wednesday, they were taken into custody in the case from various locations in Mumbai. They appeared in court on Thursday and were placed under arrest by the police until November 6.
Police are also encouraging citizens who are duped by these gangs to approach them and file a case . Their passports have been recovered and statements will be collected from these victims.
They operated by approaching people through Whatsapp groups and other social media and sometimes even through an agent who was paid 50 % commission. Their targeted job aspirants outside the states where they set up office.