The Hindu : Police train guns at fake visa agents

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 13, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad

Police train guns at fake visa agents

By Marri Ramu

HYDERABAD June 12. He is one of the hundreds of youngsters whose `foreign dreams' lay shattered after he was caught with forged visas and passports.

Rajaiah (25) of Karimnagar, deported from Dubai after his visa was found to be fake, should have been cooling his heels in the jail like many others who followed this path. Instead, he is hopeful that the long arm of the law would reach the two agents who had duped him by giving him forged documents after collecting Rs. 80,000 and treat him as a victim of cheating.

This is being made possible thanks to the new initiative taken by the Begumpet police. "All these days we have not been focusing on nabbing the agents who are duping illiterate youth hailing from rural areas. It is time we catch hold of them,'' points out Sub-Inspector Y. Venkateswara Rao.

Rajaiah is no isolated case as each year the Begumpet police tackle hundreds of such fake passport and visa cases. While some job aspirants were deported from the Gulf when their documents were found to be fake, others were caught by the immigration authorities at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport itself.

Not surprisingly, the majority of those caught were jobless youth including women hailing from poor families and rural areas. With meagre job opportunities and lack of specific skills, they look towards the Gulf. Hoping to make some money, they sell everything -- land, house and even gold to pay the brokers.

``There are also the gullible educated lot who fall prey to greedy agents who collect amounts ranging from Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 2 lakhs,'' Mr. Rao said. Already such agents are being arrested.

Three agents hailing from Nizamabad, Ravi Kumar, Peddi Reddy and Anjaneyulu were arrested in March after 15 youngsters of Nizamabad and Karimnagar districts were deported from Qatar for failing to submit original visa papers to the authorities there.

On questioning the trio, the police realised that the Qatar agent had deliberately withheld the papers, as they did not send the required fee to him. The local agents were said to have collected Rs. 50,000 each from the youngsters. The Begumpet police arrested the three and sent them to jail.

In another case, two women -- Shaik Fathima of Guntur and Namala Mary of Kakinada -- were caught with forged ECNR stamps. Four agents were arrested in this connection.

In the Rajaiah case, the police nabbed one of the agents, Ooshaiah and are on the lookout for his accomplice Ramzan.

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