New Delhi: Despite police cases and investigations launched after the much discussed deportation of Indians from the United States, the module of travel agents and middlemen accused of luring people to take the so-called ‘dunki routes’ continues to run unabated, a probe by the Enforcement Directorate has revealed. The investigation further exposed the underbelly of the syndicate, with one accused firm earning up to Rs 20 crore yearly.
The Enforcement Directorate probe revealed how these agents and middlemen continue to dupe unsuspecting people through a web of obscure firms running under pseudo names.
The agency Friday raided seven locations linked to the alleged middlemen and agents in Punjab’s Mansa and Haryana’s Kurukshetra and Karnal districts. These raids come a couple of days after the agency unearthed crucial information and leads about the agents and their network of middlemen.
On Wednesday, the agency had raided 11 locations linked to seven travel agents, three middlemen, and an Amritsar-based travel agency.
During a search of one of the agents booked by the Haryana Police for allegedly duping a Karnal resident, the federal probe agency Wednesday found a total of 30 original Indian passports.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration deported hundreds of Indians who had entered the United States illegally. A majority of them were from Punjab and Haryana. The police forces in the two states launched probes into syndicates involved in facilitating such illegal migration.
The Enforcement Directorate opened an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) based on 17 FIRs registered by police in the two states.
“During the searches (Wednesday), as many as 30 original passports were found in the house of one of the agents who was involved in sending people through the ‘dunki route’. Credible evidence has been recovered which indicates that agents have done cash/hawala transactions worth crores of rupees by duping prospective clients. Also, during searches, names of various agents and immigration agencies have come into notice who are carrying out illegal ‘dunki route’ business on a large scale,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday.
Also Read: Immigration agents under lens amid US deportations. Punjab forms SIT, Haryana lodges FIRs
‘Obscure firms, pseudo names and flourishing business’
As police in Haryana and Punjab registered FIRs against travel agents and firms on complaints from deportees from the United States, the agency took cognisance of the complaints and called them in to record their statements.
Based on the statements of the deportees and FIRs registered on their complaints, the agency filed a money laundering case to probe the financial irregularities angle.
However, there were significant differences in the names of the agents and firms that the deportees complained about and their real names in operations.
“The FIR registered in Karnal was against some Rocky, but there was no record against his name. Similarly, a firm named Right Path Immigration Pvt Ltd in Amritsar operated under a different name outside the shop. These methods of operation through obscure firms and pseudo names highlight the complexities of this industry, which people in desperation miss to see,” an ED official told ThePrint.
From the premises of “Rocky” in Karnal, the agency recovered 30 passports and also accounts of books suggesting yearly transactions of Rs 20 crore over the last few years.
Although officials are yet to establish a clear distinction between the money generated through real visa consultancy businesses and immigration through illegal routes, they highlight the scale of their business and the similarity between the two.
“The same set of firms is employed in both the real consultancy and dunki route immigration facilitation. The segregation will be done in the course of investigation,” another ED official said.
Explaining the web of agents and their network, another official said one middleman had shared details of 50 candidates with his counterparts abroad.
“There is a separate set of people for different work in the syndicate. In some cases, middlemen are based in Dubai, while their foot soldiers carry out all the work, including collecting money, mostly in cash, from candidates. Similarly, the work of arranging visas for third countries used for transit is done through other sets of conduits,” another ED official said.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
Also Read: A hunt for dunki agents in Punjab, Haryana is on. FIRs, raids, demand for lost money