Bangkok trip unravels

Immigration authorities at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) have uncovered a major visa scam through a ₹1 lakh fake visa that led to the arrest of multiple involved parties, according to a News18 report.
As per the report, one person identified as Kanwaljit was promised Greece trip for ₹1 lakh by Amritsar resident Rahul Arora. As per the deal, Kanwaljit was to travel to Bangkok, stay there for a few days and then travel to Greece.
Following the plan, Kanwaljit booked a SpiceJet flight to Bangkok on November 20 and not no issues due to Thailand’s visa-on-arrival facility for Indian travellers. However, on his return trip, the IGI’s Bureau of Immigration noticed discrepanices in his passport. Officers noted a page from Kanwaljit’s passport had residue marks which indicated a remove sticker and on further inspection noted that the Greece visa was deliberately tampered with, the report said.
Kanwaljit was unable to provide sufficient responses to official’s questions and was detailed for further probe, which revealed the fake visa plan. They found that Arora had pasted a fake Greece visa on Kanwaljit’s passport for ₹1 lakh and re-routed the trip through Thailand in an attempt to dupe authorities.
Kanwaljit had removed the fake visa to board his flight, which is when he was caught. He confessed to the plot and has been booked by the IGI Airport Police under several sections of IPC and the Passport Act. A similar case has also been registered against Arora under Sections 318(4), 336(3), and 340(2).
Arora was traced back to his hometown and confessed to the racket during questioning. He said the scheme was ongoing for many years.
Earlier on October 24, the IGIA police also said it busted a fake visa syndicate and arrested the accused, identified as 35-year-old Prateek Shah from Surat in Gujarat, as per a PTI report.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI Airport) Usha Rangnani said they first arrested five gang members — Gaurav (28), Nitin Sharma (33), Sarabjeet Kaur (29), Gagandeep Kaur (32) and Reena Kaushal (42), and learnt about Shah during investigation.
On September 28, Kuldeep (21) arrived at Delhi’s IGIA an during scrutiny it was found that a fake Canadian visitor visa was affixed to his passport. An FIR was registered and investigation taken up in the matter, she said.
The police seized 14 fake visa stickers in the name of different people, nine rubber stamps of different countries, 16 dyes of countries such as Canada, Serbia, Azerbaijan, Macedonia and Bosnia, among others, 80 blank PR card chips, one large printer, a plastic sealing machine, gumming sheets containing holograms of Serbia, Bosnia, Azerbaijan, the UK, and Macedonia, two laptops, five basic mobile phones, 18 original passports and various stationery items, the report added.