Mumbai: A month after a Mumbai-based couple Saugat and Ilika Bhattarcharya were returned their passports by the ministry of external affairs (MEA) after they fell prey to a Canadian visa scam, their ordeals are far from over. In February, the Delhi police landed at their doorstep with an FIR copy showing them as “accused” and booking them for “fraud and furnishing false information”. Surprisingly, while the Delhi police registered an FIR against the Bhattacharyas on August 1, 2016, it visited the couple to register a statement on February 8, 2017 — six months later. This after they had received a magistrate order in September 2016 declaring that they were “victims of identity theft” and directing the Mumbai police to investigate. In January, the ministry of external affairs returned their old passports and issued new ones.
The Asian Age had reported on December 17 that the Bhattacharyas had been conned and had fallen victim to a visa scam wherein their passports were forged and used by two people to make illegal entries into Canada. The couple whose passports were later seized by the US consulate and then forwarded to the MEA, have now been banned from entering the USA and their active visas cancelled.
Speaking to The Asian Age, Saugat said that he was shocked when the Delhi police came looking for them. “The policeman showed my wife the FIR copy and said that we needed to accompany him and appear at the IGI airport police station for questioning. I tried explaining to them that we were in fact the victims of a scam. But they did not listen. We finally contacted a lawyer and he asked to give a written statement to the police,” he said. The FIR, a copy of which is with The Asian Age, states that on June 20, 2016, a couple carrying passports under the names of Saugat and Ilika approached the Air Canada counter with a valid ticket for Canada. The couple did not have any luggage and looked nervous, which aroused the suspicion of the airline staff, which asked them to wait nearby and informed the airlines staff. But by the time the immigration officials were alerted, the couple managed to escape to a nearby bathroom, changed clothes and boarded a flight to Kolkata. “They booked the domestic flight ticket in their name —Usad Drunita and Ravi Kumar Patel. A scan of the CCTV footage confirmed the same,” states the FIR.
Saugat says that despite knowing the real identities of the couple who committed the fraud the police has not been able to nab them. “The scamsters managed to con at least five people, all artistes who were told their Canadian visa was rejected but in reality their passports were forged to facilitate illegal entries for others. The police and the airlines have been careless in letting them escape and now even after the MEA has cleared our passports, they are calling us as accused,” he said.
