Visa fraud: Couple in CEN police net for duping 51 people

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The Cyber Economics Narcotics (CEN) police (Southeast division) arrested a couple on charges of defrauding 51 people to the tune of crores by promising them a visa for employment abroad. The arrested are Saqlain Sultan and Nikhat Sultan, residents of Tilak Nagar. A sum of Rs 66 lakh in cash, two cars (an XUV and a Honda City), two two-wheelers (a JAWA and a Yamaha FZ) and 24 grams of gold ornaments have also been seized from their possession, the police said.

According to the police, Nikhat Sultan met a foreignborn jockey while learning horse riding at a race course in Bengaluru. The foreign jockey promised the couple of arranging visas for people interested in working as horse jockeys and doing other jobs abroad. He also promised them to pay a commission of Rs 50,000 on one visa if they introduced interested people to him. The accused couple, who accepted the offer of the foreign jockey, advertised the same on Facebook that they would arrange visas for those who wish to work as horse jockeys abroad. Accordingly, they initially secured two visas for a man who contacted them by winning their trust. Later, he claimed to have obtained visas for 51 others worth Rs 2.64 crore.

However, without obtaining visas, he used that money to travel around Sri Lanka, Dubai, Goa, Ooty and other places and live a luxurious life. When asked about the visa, he provided fake visa documents. When the documents were found to be fake, the person who had intervened to obtain the visas filed a complaint with the CEN police on January 24. The police arrested the accused and search is on for another suspect who is absconding.