Gujarat is known for its fascination for going and everything “phoren”. Now, the Ahmedabad police in Gujarat has nabbed a gang that catered specifically to Patidars only, promising them a Canadian visa. They duped these foreign citizenship crazy Patels by giving them fake documents and promising citizenship.
Amongst Gujaratis, Patels are considered to be most desirous of settling down abroad. Three different gangs have been arrested by Gujarat police in the last few hours in matters pertaining to cheating people in the name of overseas visas.
Punita Patel a resident of Parth Exotica in Nikol was involved in tours and travels business. According to her, she came in touch with one Ravi Anilkumar on Facebook about 15 months ago. Ravi gained Punita’s trust and said he was an expert in procuring visas even for those people whose visa had earlier been rejected. He said he charged Rs 18 lac (approximately $22,635 ) per visa because he took up only difficult and seemingly impossible cases. Ravi also said he not only ensured visas but Permanent Residency for the applicants. Punita “found” six clients desperate to go to Canada on a PR. (Permanent Residency). Ravi asked Punita to send the money and passports to an address in Delhi. Punita had six clients who had shelled out rs 90 lacs for the same. Ravi asked Punita to deposit the money in different accounts. According to Punita, Ravi sent nearly original documents and visa stamps too after which money was deposited in different accounts of Kuldeep Kaur, Aman, Virendra and others. Punita sent Rs 42 lacs cash to Ravi through two different Angadia firms, V Patel and R K Angadiya. However, Ravi stopped responding to Punita. Since Ravi also had the passports, the clients approached Punita and threatened to expose her following which she registered a police complaint against the so called Ravi Anil Kumar.
In the first case, Lalji Manibhai Patel, a trader dealing with auto parts, living in Shiromani Tenaments in Odhav area of the city was approached by Kalpesh Patel on WhatsApp. Kalpesh promised Canadian residency. He had prepared an advertisement which promised Canadian work and residence permit within 200 days of application. So Laljibhai got lured and got in touch with Kalpesh Patel, who said that they belonged to the same community. Kalpesh told Laljibhai that he was a Gujarat government public servant and a class II officer employed with the State Transport depot in the temple town of Ambaji in North Gujarat. Kalpesh said his wife was the front of this visa business because he could not do it being a government servant. Laljibhai was impressed since Kalpesh also showed him his government affiliation. Also Kalpesh told him that he worked only for his community that is for procuring visas for the Patidar/Patel community . Kalpesh and Laljibhai had a detailed meeting in Gandhinagar. Kalpesh had claimed that he was doing it for the welfare of the community on a no profit no loss basis and that his wife Hina Patel was also associated with him in this business.
Kalpesh showed a detailed expenditure sheet to Laljibhai saying the cost to get a work and residential permit would be Rs 8.50 lacs. Laljibhai was ready to give the entire amount at one go but Kalpesh insisted that at the moment he would idealistically accept only an advance of Rs 2.50 lacs. Laljibhai said he would also want a visitor visa which Kalpesh promised. So for the Canadian permit and visa, Laljibhai gave all his documents to Kalpesh. When nothing happened. Laljibhai registered a police complaint with the crime branch in Ahmedabad. The police have arrested the couple Kalpesh and Hina Patel from Sargasan in Gandhinagar besides Ganpat Patel, his wife Shweta Ganpat Patel, Babu and Rutvik Patel.
In the third case, the Special Operations Group in Ahmedabad got a tip off that K Koshti Associates, a local firm was fabricating documents that were to be annexed to visa, citizenship and Permanent Residency files. The police raided the office premises and according to DySP B C Solani and Inspector P M Gamit, they found fake signatures, rubber stamps, documents, computers. Printers and mobile phones being used for the same. The police are conducting further investigation in the case.
Also Read: UK Begins Priority & Super-Priority Processing for Student Visa
