The police said that the firm had already flown 10 people to the US upon securing visas by submitting fake documents.
The Neredmet cops arrested four people, including the owner of the firm, for their alleged involvement. (Creative Commons)
The Rachakonda Police on Wednesday, 18 May, busted an immigration consultancy racket where several job aspirants were promised visas to the United States and were charged huge amounts.
The Neredmet cops arrested four people, including the owner of the fake consultancy, for their alleged involvement in the scam.
The cops said that the fake consultancy — named St Anthony’s Immigrations — was operating at Secunderabad for the last six years.
As per cops, as many as 10 people are said to have already flown to the US upon securing visas by submitting fake documents — government employee ID cards, fake sponsoring letters, and bank balance letters.
As per the cops, the mastermind of the racket — running in Secunderabad — was one Garlapati Nageshwara, also known as Garlapati Wilson. He used to work as a visa agent.
Arrested accused. (Supplied)
The cops also arrested Gotukula Nagaraju (local financier), N Prabhakar Rao (a commission agent), and Jakkula Nageshwar (impersonating an accounts officer in the Telangana Irrigation Department).
Wilson used to charge ₹5 lakh and initially ₹1.5 lakh as a processing fee, the cops said.
The cops said the firm fraudulently used a genuine sponsor letter of an Indian couple in the US.
“They got it copied and were misusing it by editing and making entries for the visa aspirants. They used to make the US consulate authorities believe that the aspirants would return to India after visiting their relatives in the US,” they said.
Wilson used to allegedly introduce the visa aspirants to financier Nagaraju, who in turn used to open accounts in a cooperative bank.
“Nagaraju used to deposit around ₹40-50 lakh to create an impression that the cash transaction was legitimate. He also used to charge 1.5 percent of the amount per day from them,” the cops said.
The police said that the firm was also guiding the visa aspirants about the presentation, behaviour, and questioning process at the US consulates.
Seized items from the arrested accused. (Supplied)
“If the aspirant gets a visa, they would charge ₹3.5-4 lakh. The successful candidate had to pay the commission every month till they pay the complete agreed amount,” said the police.
“The firm sent about 50-60 applicants to the US visa department where as many as 10 aspirants got selected and went to the US,” they added.
The cops said some women also applied for US visas to get jobs as domestic help or nanny.
The Neredmet police have booked the accused under IPC Sections 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery), 471 (dishonestly use any genuine document), and 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy).
The cops seized ₹18,000 cash, 16 fake ID cards of Telangana government employees of different departments, five passports, 279 chequebooks, a computer, a laptop, and four mobile phones from the accused.
Several fake documents were also seized from them, said the police.
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