Four persons, including two women, have been arrested for allegedly duping people on the pretext of sending them abroad for jobs and migration, the police said on Saturday.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Monika Bhardwaj said that the accused have been identified as Ishpreet Singh (22), Karan Kumar alias Kunal (28), Akansha (22), all hailing from Punjab, and Palak Sachdeva, a resident of Uttam Nagar.
The police said that the matter came to light on Sunday, after one Vijay from Rajasthan approached the Janak Puri police. He said he had come across advertisements online and contacted Black Stone Migration Services which had its office in Janak Puri, regarding a Canada-based job.
The complainant alleged that he met Akansha in the said office where he first gave her ₹14,160 and then ₹6,000 and later ₹1 lakh along with his passport. He was told that his visa and ticket would be ready in a month, but when he went to the office after a month, it was shut. He added that the mobile numbers given to him were also found switched off.
After a case was registered and an investigation was taken up, technical surveillance was mounted. The police later received a tip-off that the accused had absconded to Punjab.
148 passports recovered
Ms. Bhardwaj said raids were conducted and the four were arrested from Patiala’s Zirakpur on Wednesday. “A total of 148 passports that belong to the people they had cheated, a car purchased from the duped money, 13 mobile phones and 35 SIM cards have been recovered from their possession,” she said, adding that another accused, identified as Kaka, is absconding and teams are looking for him.
200 people fell prey
During interrogation, the accused told the police that they had been operating in Janak Puri for the last six-seven months and used to lure people on the pretext of work visa and job in Canada, Kuwait, Australia and Dubai. “They said they have so far targetted about 200 persons belonging to various States and duped about ₹60-70 lakhs and passports,” she said.
The police said that Ishpreet is a mechanical engineer who had come to Delhi in 2016 and worked as a consultant, before starting to dupe people. Karan, the police said, had come to Delhi in July 2018 and got in touch with Ishpreet.