News Karnataka
Thursday, March 28 2024
Cricket
Bengaluru

Bengaluru: CBI books 6 for visa fraud at French Embassy

CBI sees bigger conspiracy in Lalan Sheikh death
Photo Credit : IANS

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday December 16 registered a case against six persons, including two former employees of the Visa Department of the French Embassy here on allegations of visa fraud there.

A CBI official said that accused Shubham Shokeen and Aarti Mandal, working in the mission’s Visa Department, conspired with Navjot Singh, Chetan Sharma, Satwinder Singh Purewal, Manpreet Singh and others to perpetrate issue of fraudulent visas during the period January 1 to May 6, 2022.

“A few applicants from Punjab and Jammu submitted fake and forged letters purportedly written by a private company based at Bengaluru to the Consulate General of France, Bengaluru for issuing entry visas, for their joining private companies in Port-Le-Havre, France. The accused Shokeen and Mandal allegedly issued entry visas in favour of three other accused after taking illegal gratification of Rs. 50,000 per visa, without the knowledge and approval of the Head of Visa Department,” the official said.

After issuance of entry visas, the accused destroyed the document files concerned.

During the period of five months, several files were allegedly handled by these accused which mostly pertain to young farmers or other unemployed people from Punjab who had not earlier travelled outside the country, and the frauds perpetrated.

The CBI on Friday December 16 conducted search operations at the premises belonging to the accused in Delhi, Patiala, Gurdaspur, and Jammu.

“Incriminating documents including laptop, mobile phones, and suspicious passportA have so far been recovered,” the CBI said.

Further investigation in the matter is on.

Share this:
MANY DROPS MAKE AN OCEAN
Support NewsKarnataka's quality independent journalism with a small contribution.

How useful was this post?

Click on a star to rate it!

Average rating 0 / 5. Vote count: 0

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

To get the latest news on WhatsApp