New Delhi: Ramandeep Singh spent 10 days in a hotel room in Tijuana before boarding a vehicle headed to the US-Mexico border; Aman struck a deal with a Pakistani agent named ‘Doctor’ who promised him the ‘American Dream’; and Ajaideep Singh lived in a hotel in Guyana for a month before he was apprehended trying to cross the border into America.
Though their stories are unique, they fit into a pattern—young Indians putting their lives on the line to emigrate to North America, and instead getting exploited by ‘agents’ and landing behind bars in a foreign land. Less than a week since its formation, Punjab Police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) has booked at least eight travel agents from across the state, besides some others in Haryana and Delhi, on the complaints of Indian nationals who were deported from the US and flown back to the country on a military aircraft last week.
Of these, two cases were filed by Amritsar Rural police and Tarn Taran district police and the remaining six at police stations across the state designated to deal with NRI affairs.
Sources in Punjab Police told ThePrint that the agents have been booked either for misleading their clients or for not revealing the entirety of risks and repercussions involved in entering another country illegally.
The four-member SIT formed Friday to probe the matter is led by IPS officer Praveen K.Sinha (posted as ADGP, NRI Wing). Its members are IPS officers Shive Kumar Verma (ADGP, Internal Security), S.Boopathi (IGP, Provisioning) and Satinder Singh (DIG, Border Range). The Punjab government also launched a WhatsApp helpline to assist NRIs.
Sinha told ThePrint, “The scope of investigation is to reach to the bottom of these networks who manage to send Indian nationals to the US through illegal means. Based on the investigation, a report will be submitted to the NRI Affairs department recommending steps to curb illegal migration.”
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UK to Bahamas to Mexico
A resident of Punjab’s Nawanshahr with a Higher Secondary Certificate, Ramandeep Singh felt he wasn’t cut out for farming. He approached Rajpura-based agent Sahil Kumar Luthra in December 2023.
In the police complaint that formed the basis of an FIR registered Monday, Ramandeep alleged his Canadian visa was under process by June last year when Luthra went incommunicado. Luthra reappeared a few months later and informed Ramandeep that his visa application was likely to be rejected. Instead, he offered an American visa in exchange for Rs 40 lakh. Ramandeep was told that he would have to travel to the UK first, and asked to deposit Rs 2.30 lakh in an account specified by Luthra for the UK visa.
On 24 October, Singh travelled to the UK where he lived in a hotel for one month before Luthra and his associates arranged for him to fly first to the Bahamas and then on to Nicaragua, Guatemala and finally to Mexico. In mid-January this year, after he had spent 10 days there, Ramandeep alleged two people forcibly entered his hotel room in Tijuana city, seized his mobile phones and forced him into a vehicle headed to the US border.
Ramandeep, along with others in the vehicle, was detained at the border and placed in a detention facility in the US from where he was deported.
On his complaint, Luthra and his associate Surjit Singh Gill have been booked under sections 143 (trafficking of person), 316 (2) (criminal breach of trust), 318 (4) (cheating), 61 (criminal conspiracy) of BNS and 24 of Emigration Act, 1983 that deals with punishment for offences related to emigration at NRI police station in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar.
The Madrid route & a Pakistani agent
In at least two of the eight cases being probed by Punjab Police, deportees alleged they travelled to Mexico via Madrid.
For instance, Tarn Taran Sahib resident Mandeep Singh had been in Spain since 2022. He convinced his parents of his plan to settle down in the US. His father then approached Gurkirat Singh, an agent based out of Tarn Taran district who promised to get Mandeep to the US within 15 days. His asking price was Rs 22 lakh.
As part of the plan, Mandeep was first flown to Bolivia and then taken to Mexico by taxi—a journey that took more than three months. Upon arrival in Mexico, Gurkirat sought another Rs 2 lakh. He was able to get Mandeep into the US but the latter was detained shortly after entering the country.
Based on Mandeep’s complaint, Tarn Taran police have booked Gurkirat under section 318 (4) of the BNS and section 13 of the Punjab Travel Professionals Regulation Rules, 2013.
Another case is that of Aman who had been living in Italy for three years, before he decided to emigrate to the US. Aman was taken to Spain in a taxi after his father and brother struck a deal with Akash Kumar, an agent back in India, who promised to send Aman to the US in exchange for Rs 18 crore.
Three days after his arrival in Spain, Aman was flown from Madrid to Mexico on 17 December last year. But he alleged he was harassed by agents upon arrival in Mexico. Aman then came across a Pakistani agent named ‘Doctor’ who promised to get him to Arizona in exchange for USD 14,000.
Like Mandeep, Aman too was detained shortly after he entered the US.
Based on Aman’s complaint, a case has been registered against Akash Kumar under section 318 (4) of the BNS and section 13 of the Punjab Travel Professionals Regulation Rules, 2013 at the NRI police station in Gurdaspur.
Gurdaspur resident Jaspal Singh, too, has a similar story.
For Jaspal, the US was his dream destination. Having worked in Saudi Arabia as a truck driver, he had been living in Doha on a three-year work visa when he came across an agent who promised him a UK visa in exchange for Rs 11 lakh. Jaspal returned to India in July 2022 and flew to the UK the next month. He lived in the UK for a few months before taking the illegal route to the US where he was detained on 24 January this year.
Based on Jaspal’s complaint, Punjab Police have booked a Spanish agent and his Indian accomplice Navdip Singh Sandhu under sections 318 (4) and 61 of BNS and section 13 of the Punjab Travel Professionals Regulation Rules, 2013.
Referred to agent by US-based friend
Ajaideep Singh, 21, harboured a dream to settle down abroad. The Amritsar resident approached a friend based in the US who referred him to Mukul Munjal, an agent from Haryana’s Kurukshetra. Munjal promised to get him to the US via air within a month in exchange for Rs 45 lakh.
On Munjal’s advice, Ajaideep secured a three-month visa for Guyana last July. He stayed in the South American country for a month before travelling by train to Ecuador and then to Mexico. During this time, Munjal collected Rs 45 lakh from Ajaideep’s family in two installments. But Ajaideep was detained shortly after he entered the US.
Based on Ajaideep’s complaint, the NRI police station in Amritsar registered a case against Munjal under sections 316 (2) (criminal breach of trust) 318 (4) (cheating) of the BNS and section 13 of the Punjab Travel Professionals Regulation Rules, 2013.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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