The Canadian government has identified 300 cases of visa fraud by Indian students.
Voice 9, Mumbai: Mumbai Immigration
officers have arrested a 19-year-old student on suspicion of using fake mark
sheets to get a student visa to Canada. A Gujarat-based visa and immigration
agent has also been investigated by the police for allegedly organizing the
mark sheets.
Immigration officials afterward informed
the police, who filed an arrest warrant in the case. A case has been filed
under Indian Penal Code Sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing
delivery of property), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of
cheating), and 471 (using a forged document or electronic record as real).
On the other hand, the Canadian Border
Services Agency (CBSA) found 300 cases in which Indian students who arrived in
Canada between 2017 and 2020 reportedly used forged credentials to get study
visas. According to a Free Press Journal article, CBSA first evaluated 2000
cases where fake documents may have been used to get a student visa and limited
it down to '300 cases of concern' based on public tip-offs.
The young man was then undergoing a
thorough investigation, during which he confessed that an Ahmedabad-based agent
had obtained the phony mark sheets for him in order for him to obtain the visa.
According to the police, the complainant in
the case is SS Pandey, an immigration officer at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj
International Airport. The adolescent arrived at the immigration office on Tuesday
and handed over his Indian passport and boarding pass for verification. The
person was meant to take an aircraft from Paris to Toronto. When the official
questioned him about why he was in Canada and how many grades he had received
in Class X and XII examinations, he could not provide adequate answers,
according to the authorities.
Immigration officials then informed the
police and got an offense registered in the matter. A case has been registered
under Sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property),
465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), and 471 (using as
genuine a forged document or electronic record) of the Indian Penal Code.
