Fake visa appointment racket busted, three held for extortions

A fake visa appointment racket was busted by the Crime Branch and three people were arrested who used to extort large sums of money from foreign job seekers, promising them appointment letters and visas to various countries after impersonating as VFS Global employees.

- UJWAL JALALI

VFS Global, headquartered in Zurich and Dubai, provides governments with administrative solutions for processing passport applications and visa consular services. The arrested accused, Ritesh Tiwari (28), Chandan Baranwal (26), and Dr. Azad Pratap Rao (23), are all residents of Kushinagar in UP.

ACP (Crime) Sanjay Bhatia said a case was registered following a complaint by a VFS official in which he alleged that Parveen Sahoo and Ajeet Sahoo, through social media platforms, were falsely representing themselves as VFS officials and issued forged visa appointment letters in exchange for large sums of money from applicants.

"The accused misused the VFS logo in their online profiles and communicated with victims via fraudulent email IDs," the Additional CP said.