Staff from a visa company was arrested for falsifying paperwork to facilitate immigration to Canada.
According to the investigation, Christie and Dewan were hired by Bharwad to collect biometric data from job applicants who had not been issued a proper appointment letter. The two were paid between Rs 5,000 and Rs 7,000 for each application they assisted.
One former employee and two current employees of the visa outsourcing and technology services specialist VFS Global were detained on Wednesday by the Ahmedabad city crime branch for allegedly fabricating visa appointment letters by using biometric data illegally to assist 28 people in obtaining Canadian immigration.
Vyomesh Deepakbhai Thakar, the deputy general manager of VFS Global, reportedly lodged a police complaint on this matter on July 16 in Ahmedabad, according to officials with the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB).
Speaking to the media, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch), Chaitanya Mandlik, revealed that current employees Melvin Christie and Sohail Salimbhai Dewan, as well as former VFS employee Mehul Bharwad, were also among those detained.
The defendants committed fraud at Navya Corporation by forging appointment letters. Applicants must create a profile on the IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) portal and upload their supporting documentation to be considered for a visa to Canada.
When these are uploaded, IRCC verifies them, and then an appointment letter is sent for registering the applicant's biometric, according to Mandlik.
In this case, the agents facilitated the registration of biometrics through a back door by forging appointment papers. This was done even though no official date had been set for the registration of biometrics.
A first investigation revealed that each person whose appointment letters were faked had Rs 25,000 taken from them. Of the 28 applications, 22 had already been rejected a year prior, but it seems the applicants needed to be informed, he continued.
The criminal branch claims that Bharwad employed Christie and Dewan to register the biometric data of candidates lacking a valid appointment letter. The two were paid between Rs 5,000 and Rs 7,000 for each application they assisted.
According to Muktesh Chander, senior advisor for internal security issues at VFS and a former DGP of Goa, the accused used to sneak unregistered visa applications out the back door or escape during lunchtime. He said it was spread out over the entire month of June to avoid detection.
He continued by saying that the scam's travel agents pocketed between Rs 30 and Rs 35 lakh from each applicant and paid bribes to VFS personnel.
Inspector B S Suthar of the Crime Branch, who oversees the investigation, said that when the IRCC discovered the unapproved biometrics for the 28 people, they contacted VFS.
"Applications were consistently received from people in Ahmedabad who were not in the system but were enrolling for their biometrics," continued Prabuddha Sen, Chief Operating Officer (South Asia) of VFS.
We took it upon ourselves to look into the situation when we got this tip. He continued, "Agents and grey operators are working outside the system, including ex-employees. Insiders are also involved to some extent.
However, they (the VFS employees) are merely a minor spoke in the larger wheel. Sen determined that the applicants were "not naive" and sought to "migrate illegally."
Sen stated that three months prior, VFS had informed the Delhi Police of a fraud involving visas of a similar nature.
Sen claims a 140% spike in visa requests in 2021–2022 and a 20% increase in 2022–2023. He said that an "all-time high" percentage of visa applications were being turned down, at 50%.
