Visa consultant his cousin booked in Rs 41.75 lakh visa fraud

Ahmedabad, Oct 22 (PTI) A visa consultant and his Hyderabad-based cousin have been booked by the Gujarat CID for allegedly duping a businessman and five to six other persons to the tune of Rs 41.75 lakh by promising them US visas, officials said on Tuesday.
While the alleged fraud took place over a period of one year starting from March last year, the FIR was registered on October 7 at CID Crime police station in the city, said police inspector D A Tadvi, who is investigating the case.
As per the FIR, a person named `Chitan Mission', a resident of Bapunagar area, and his cousin Sagar Mission allegedly took Rs 41.75 lakh from complainant Savan Patel and five to six others by promising them tourist visas of the United States through their contacts in the US Consulate in Hyderabad, said Tadvi.
"Savan Patel came into contact with Chintan through a friend in March last year. Chintan, who used to run a computer repairing shop in Bapunagar claimed that he is also a visa consultant. Patel gave Chintan Rs 4 lakh to get visa appointment for two minor sons of a person known to him," said Tadvi citing the FIR.
Since Chintan had claimed that his cousin Sagar works in the immigration department in Hyderabad and can expedite the visa process through his contacts in the US Consulate there, Patel introduced four other visa aspirants to Chintan, who took Rs 3 lakh as advance to fix an appointment, said Tadvi.
Chintan then floated a scheme claiming he and his cousin are taking people to the US on tourist visas for Rs 4 lakh each.
Believing his claim, 19 persons from Patel's friend circle agreed to pay advance of Rs 1 lakh. On everyone's behalf, Patel and two of his friends gave Rs 19 lakh to Chintan, said Tadvi.
In December, Chintan targeted three others and allegedly took Rs 14 lakh from them to arrange US visas.
In February this year, Chintan took Patel to Hyderabad for completing visa related work of two persons known to Patel and allegedly took an additional Rs 6.75 lakh for expediting the process.
"When nothing materialized, Patel and others demanded their money back. In all, Chintan took Rs 41.75 lakh from visa aspirants. When Chintan refused to refund the amount, Patel approached the CID. We have booked both the accused on the charges of cheating, forgery and other relevant sections. No one has been arrested yet," said the police inspector.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)