The Gujarat police conducted raids at 17 immigration consultancy firms in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, and Vadodara, following complaints that fake documents were being used to obtain visas.
Passports and computer hardware were seized, a senior official said.
The raids came after a month of surveillance by state CID Crime employees, Additional DGP (CID Crime) Rajkumar Pandian said.
Mr Pandian claimed that among the items seized during the raids were documents, hard drives, computers, passports and copies of them, stamps, Rs 5.5 lakh in cash, and mark sheets from universities in other states.
“Joint raids were held at 17 offices of visa agents. We seized 27 passports, 182 copies of passports, 53 computers and hard drives, 79 mark sheets, and other documents. The raids were carried out on Friday by 17 teams with over 50 police personnel and computer experts as well as one SP and four Deputy SPs,” he told a section of the media.
Two of the raided firms also had liquor bottles, though Gujarat bars sale and consumption of alcohol.
A number of visa consulting firms came under investigation, he said, following complaints that travellers, particularly those heading to the USA, Canada, and Australia, were made to return to India from foreign airports after paying large sums of money to these consulting firms to assist in obtaining visas.
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