On the written complaint of the US Embassy in New Delhi, Ludhiana Police recently booked 7 travel agents operating in the city for providing fake documents to US Visa applicants. Ludhiana Police reportedly claimed to have busted a big racket who were allegedly providing fake educational degrees, work experience certificates, and even inflated bank account documents. These three documents are minutely checked by the US Embassy before they provide US visas to any applicants in India. As per reports, the Ludhiana Police also revealed that the accused would charge large amounts of money for issuing fake documents and also helped applicants showing inflated bank balances in their accounts to strengthen their US visa applications.
As per reports, Eric C Molitors, a representative on behalf of the US Embassy in New Delhi had filed a complaint on this and hence an SIT was formed for an investigation. The names of the people who have been booked are- Amandeep Singh of Chhatt village (Zirakpur), his wife Poonam Rani, Ankur Kohar of Central Green, Ludhiana, Akshay Sharma of Guru Gobind Singh Nagar, Bathinda, Kamaljot Kansal of Mohali (owner of a Chandigarh-based consultancy), Rohit Bhalla of Friends Colony, Ludhiana and Kirti Sood of Barnala.
US Embassy's complaint alleged that the visa consultants- Chandigarh-based Red Leaf Immigration and Ludhiana-based Overseas Partner Education Consultants- were involved in illicit activities that offered fake certificates to applicants for money. These agents were suspected of submitting false information on visa applications to deceive the US Embassy and government.
Reports further revealed that Amandeep and Poonam are partners at Red Leaf Immigration, Sector 22 C, Chandigarh. On the other hand, Ankur runs Overseas Partner Education Consultant at Bharat Nagar Chowk, Ludhiana. He also owns Rudra Consultancy Service, which arranges funds in lieu of hefty charges from applicants for applying for a US visa.
US Embassy had flagged five visa applicants who submitted fake documents- Simran Thakur of Himachal Pradesh, Lovely Kaur of Mansa, Harwinder Kaur of Jagraon, Ramneet Kaur of Nawanshahr, and Rahul Kumar of Haryana. The fake documents included educational degrees, work experience certificates, and bank balances.
A report suggested that Simran Thakur allegedly paid Rs 2 lakh for a fake BSc Degree. On the other hand. Lovely Kaur paid rs 18,000 for fake (inflated) bank balance documents and a work experience certificate.