Police bust gang producing fake visas, 6 held

The Delhi Police have busted an illegal factory operating out of Tilak Nagar that was producing counterfeit visas, officials said on Sunday. The crackdown resulted in the arrest of six persons involved in the fake visa racket, including the mastermind, Manoj Monga (51).

On September 2, an Indian traveller named Sandeep, a resident of Kurukshetra, Haryana, was found with a fake Swedish visa during departure clearance at IGI Airport. Ajay Yadav, an officer privy to the investigation, said, “Sandeep revealed that he had paid Rs 10 lakh to agents in the hope of securing a European visa to improve his livelihood.”

Following Sandeep’s arrest, the police tracked and arrested Ashif Ali, Naveen Rana, Shiva Gautam, Balbir Singh and Jaswinder Singh. Further investigation led to the arrest of the main operator, Monga.

Monga, a diploma holder in desktop publishing, had been in the flex printing business for 20 years but switched to producing counterfeit visas about five years ago after being persuaded by Jaideep Singh. “Jaideep provided him with the necessary equipment, including embossing dyes, rubber stamps and visa stickers, allowing Monga to operate his factory clandestinely,” Yadav said.

The police recovered a variety of material and equipment from Monga’s factory, including 30 fake visa stickers under different names, rubber stamps from various countries, permanent residency cards for Italy, wooden and metal dyes from different embassies, embossing machines, UV machines, laptops, printers and 16 Nepalese and Indian passports.

DCP, IGI Airport, Usha Rangnani, said, “Monga could produce a counterfeit visa in 20-25 minutes. He also provided fake appointment letters under the name of VFS Global to convince his customers that the visas were genuine.”