Couple dupe 40 people of Rs 1.63 crores on pretext of providing work visa for Canada

According to police, the complainant in the case wanted to go to Canada and work there and was seeking help from the two accused in getting a work visa. The couple took Rs 7.16 lakh from the complainant on the pretext of processing fee for her Visa application.

Police said when the woman did not get her Visa on time and flagged the issue, she only got vague responses from the couple. Later, the complainant discovered there are others too who were defrauded in a similar manner. She then filed a police complaint.

Speaking to The Indian Express, the complainant said, “The accused had floated Online Media Centres on social media where people could see the review and status of their applications. But, when victims started discovering the truth behind their fraud, they took down these online media centres.”

She added, “So far, 40 victims have come forward. There are are possibilities that the couple have defrauded many other victims.”
Police have booked Rina and Gaurav under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC.
The two accused have told victims that they are just victims of the Visa providing agency. However, the police are not buying their claims and are looking for them.

“We are in process of obtaining details of the bank accounts used by the accused and who were handling these accounts and who were the end beneficiary of the money. The accused couple has also given some documents to the victim. Once established that these documents were bogus, then relevant sections of the forgery would also be added in the case,” said a police officer part of the investigation.