The Delhi Police’s IGI unit has arrested four men from Mumbai for their alleged involvement in an international immigration racket and seized hundreds of passports, visas, and immigration stamps from them.
Police said the arrested men were identified as main accused Zakir Yusuf Sheikh (46), who was allegedly involved in financing movies and web series in Mumbai; Jamil Picturewala (33), who was the middleman in the deals; and two travel document forgers Imtiaz Ali Sheikh and Sanjay Dattaram Chavan (58).
Police said the accused were allegedly involved in arranging fake passports, visas, ID and travel documents for people to settle in other countries.
According to police, on June 6, one Ravi Rameshbhai Chaudhary was deported from Kuwait to India and it was found that his passport was counterfeit at the arrival immigration clearance. He was arrested, and a case was filed under IPC sections 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery for cheating) 471 (using forged document as genuine), 120b (criminal conspiracy) and section 12 of the Passport Act (offences).
Police said Ravi allegedly confessed to coming in contact with three agents, including Zakir and Jamil. The third agent told him a fake passport and visa could be arranged for Rs 65 lakh and shared the contacts of the other two. Police said Ravi made an advance payment of Rs 15 lakh to the third agent and sent his photograph and picture to Jamil, who then allegedly arranged a fake passport and a fake Netherlands visa for Ravi. The three fled after hearing of Ravi’s arrest.
DCP (IGI) Tanu Sharma said: “After examining call details and tracing the three, Jamil was arrested from Mumbai on August 3. He told police he had been working with Zakir and procuring fake passports and material from Imtiaz and Sanjay. Their social media calls and virtual international numbers were tracked via IP addresses.”
Police said Zakir was then arrested from Madh Mumbai on August 16, and Imtiaz and Sanjay were arrested on his instance from Andheri West and Chuna Bhatti. Police said Zakir had changed 89 IMEI numbers to evade arrest.
Police further said 325 Indian and four international passports; 175 forged Visas; over 1,200 immigration stamps of various nations; 75 Indian passport jackets; 11 International driving permits; Aadhaar cards; and various equipment, printers, computers and blank cards to fabricate documents and IDs were recovered from the latter’s two hideouts.
Police said further investigation was on to arrest the remaining accused.
