By Jaideep Sarin,IANS,
Chandigarh : In one of the biggest immigration rackets that has surfaced in this city, the ways adopted by multi-million-rupee immigration firm Healthyway Immigration are now under the scanner of Chandigarh Police.
The Healthyway Immigration owner and director, millionaire Amit Kakkar, is behind bars following the unearthing of the immigration scam this week. He has been booked for cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy.
Kakkar and his immigration firm are now being investigated by police for allegedly duping scores of youth by promising to send them to other countries. Youth had paid amounts ranging from Rs.70,000 to Rs.200,000 to seek immigration to other countries.
The scam came to light when immigration officials in British, Canadian and other high commissions and embassies in New Delhi found that the financial documents of immigrants submitted through the firm were fake.
“The British, Canadian and Australian embassies contacted the police and shared information about the fake documents. We are investigating the matter thoroughly,” Deputy Superintendent of Police Ashish Kapoor said here.
Police investigations so far have shown that out of the 252 financial documents examined, 248 were found fake.
“All 112 bank documents supposedly issued by the Patiala Road branch of the Oriental Bank of Commerce in Rajpura town (40 km from Chandigarh) have been found to be fake,” Kapoor said.
He said the role of nationalised banks in this illegal operation is also being investigated.
The role of certain bank officials in preparing fake bank documents will be investigated, he added.
“Other fake documents have been issued illegally in the name of banks in other parts of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. We are investigating everything,” an investigating officer told IANS here.
Financial documents are sought by the embassies of various countries from immigration aspirants to ensure that they have the financial capacity to go and support themselves in the new country.
Police officers say Healthyway has 42 branches in various states and a thorough investigation would be carried out.
Punjab, which sees thousands of youth seeking immigration to other countries every month, has 29 of these branches.
Hundreds of immigration firms operate across Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana to help people, particularly youth, to apply for immigration. They charge hefty amounts from these aspirants to get the immigration paperwork completed with all required documents.
(Jaideep Sarin can be contacted at [email protected])