Canada dreams crash as 28 people duped; three VFS Ahmedabad employees accused
Employees of the company named in the FIR availed of bogus biometrics
Updated: Aug 2nd, 2023
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| Canada dreams broken (image: Envato Elements) |
Updated on Aug 2, 11.09 a.m.
Bhadra court denied bail of two accused
Additional sessions judge Manoj Kotak has rejected the bail of the two accused, Mehul Bharwad and Harish Pandya.
Updated on July 19, 4 p.m.
Three employees of VFS Global Company were arrested by ACB. They charged ₹20 thousand per candidate to the 28 people duped by this scam for their biometrics.
Updated on July 18, 11 a.m.
The company CCTVs were checked, and it revealed that the staff had collected the biometrics of the aspirants and uploaded them on the Canadian high commission's website. The aspirants were coming to provide the biometrics without any appointment. Melvyn Christi, Sohil Diwan, and other staff members were present at the time.
The questioning of Christi and Diwan revealed another name, Mehul Bharwad, a former employee of the company. Bharwad used to collect biometrics of the aspirants without appointment letters and was getting paid in return.
The investigation also revealed that forged appointment letters were also made, on which the crime branch is working now.
A fraudulent network sending people abroad has been caught by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch (ACB) after the general manager of the company filed an FIR. 28 people who wanted to migrate to Canada have been duped by this network.
ACB came into action after this, and their investigation revealed that the fraudsters had made bogus biometric letter pads. The crime branch has registered a complaint against four employees of the VFS Ahmedabad office which is the visa application service provider.
Canada High Commission’s email to VFS office unearthed the scam
Maninagar resident and deputy general manager at VFS Global Pvt. Ltd., Vyomesh Thakar, had lodged a complaint of fraud against four employees of his company. According to Thakar, on July 5, the VFS office in Ahmedabad received an email from the Canadian High Commission stating that the biometrics of a total of 28 people had been submitted from the visa application centre in the city. But since no appointment letters were issued along with them, the high commission asked them to recheck it. So, Thakar had the database checked by the operations manager of the VFS Centre for the required biometrics of 28 people, but no such names were obtained.
Bogus biometrics given at different times and dates
Vyomesh Thakar suspected that some VFS employees may have obtained the biometrics of customers without the knowledge of the company and submitted them on the Canada High Commission website. On further investigating into the matter and checking the CCTV footage, it was found that some people were entering the premises without an appointment and submitting biometrics. Along with them, two VFS employees were involved in getting the biometrics of the 28 people taken at various times and dates.
A former employee of the company, along with a travel agent, had planned out this fraud with two existing employees of the company by obtaining the biometrics of the candidates whose appointment letters had not been issued yet. All four of them have been named in the FIR registered by Thakar.
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