Hinjewadi Police Bust Visa Scam, Apprehend Scammers and Stamp Manufacturer

The Hinjewadi police have successfully apprehended a group of scammers involved in producing counterfeit visas. The fabricated visas were purportedly for plumbers, drivers, and welders, facilitating their supposed travel to Brunei. In addition to the three individuals responsible for creating the fraudulent visas, the police also detained the manufacturer of the forged stamps. Further investigations revealed that the gang collected a substantial sum of money by obtaining the passports of up to 125 individuals in the guise of providing work visas for them. 

Accused Vijay Pratap Singh (44), a resident of Mamurdi and native of Uttar Pradesh, Kisan Dev Pande (35), a resident of Mamurdi and native of Uttar Pradesh, Hemant Sitaram Patil (38), a resident of Kiwale and native of Dhule and Kiran Arjun Raut (34), a resident of Chinchwad have been held by the police. As per the police report, the accused Vijay, Kisan, and Hemant had previously worked together in the import-export sector and had become friends while Hemant Patil had previously defrauded individuals by offering jobs abroad. Kisan and Vijay joined Hemant in his business of cheating job seekers and planned a new modus operandi for scamming job seekers.

There is high demand for Indians who work as drivers, plumbers, and welders hence the individuals who get a job abroad earn a handsome amount job seekers prefer taking jobs abroad and searching for agents who would help them with the visa and other formalities. Taking advantage of this trend the accused started the Blue Ocean Marine Company four months back. The accused assured jobs to the candidates and acquired their passports assuring them visas for Brunei. The accused gained the victims' trust by providing them with documents with fake stamps. When the victims visited the airport with the visa documents, they learnt that the visa documents were fake, some candidates even visited the Brunei embassy in New Delhi, and it was confirmed that their passports were stamped with fake stamps.

After learning he was duped the victim Manish Swamy (age 32) a resident of Rajastan registered a complaint at the Hinjewadi police station on December 27, 2023. Accordingly, the police filed an FIR under sections 420, 465, 468, and other relevent sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The police team headed by Senior Police Inspector Shreeram Paull and Police Sub Inspector Ram Gomare raided the Blue Ocean Marine Companies office located at Karturi Chowk and nabbed Vijay Pratap Singh, Kisan Dev Pandey and Hemant Sitaram Patil and recovered 67 passports with fake work orders for jobs in Brunei, out of the 67 passports 48 passports were stamped with fake Negara Brunei Darussalam stamp. The raid recovered two laptops, one Personal Computer, seven mobile phones and fake stamps worth Rs 1,68,150.

Further investigations revealed that the accused planning to flee the city in the next seven days. The accused got the fake stamps from Unique Printers and Xerox in Chikhali accordingly the police have also arrested Kiran Raut who is the owner of the shop. Raut confessed to the police manufacturing the fake stamps for money. According to the police, further probe in the case revealed that the accused Vijay Pratap had given 58 passports labelled as important to a laundry owner in Mamurdi. Accordingly, the police interrogated the laundry owner and seized the passports, the police have recovered overall 125 passports. While the accused are in police custody further probe is underway.