Travel agent held in fake passport-visa racket in Vapi

Surat, Sep 5 (UNI) Police today arrested a travel agent from Vapi town near here for allegedly issuing fake passports and visas and duping people of crores of rupees.

According to police, Rajesh Patel and his wife Neeta of Dungara village in Surat district wanted to go to the US and had paid Rs 28 lakh to two travel agents -- Mahesh and Nitin Patel of Vapi, to make arrangement for passports and visas.

After some time, the agents informed Rajesh and his wife that their passports and visas were ready. As decided earlier, the duo accompanied the couple first to Malaysia and then to Singapore.

In Singapore, the couple met one of their relatives and told him about their impending US visit. The relative inspected the passports and became suspicious about the veracity of their passports as well as the visas. The couple expressed the doubt about the same to the travel agents. They brought them back to India.

On arrival, Rajesh and Neeta Patel lodged a complaint with the Kamrej Police in Surat district. Surat district local crime branch investigated the case and arrested Mahesh Patel, while his accomplice Nitin is absconding.

During investigations, Mahesh admitted to having duped the people of crores of rupees on the pretext of arranging passports and visas for them.

Further investigations are on, police added.

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