Ahmedabad Crime Branch has arrested several accused for allegedly defrauding people of lakhs of rupees in the name of getting them a Canada work permit visa. In all, the team is said to have cheated at least 100 people, committing a fraud of more than Rs5 crores. The arrest happened as victims filed complaints at Naranpura and Vastrapur police stations.
The team used to run the fraud business from a company Udan Holidays, which was located in the Gurukul area of Ahmedabad. They would lure people with an assurance of getting them a work permit visa for Canada. The gang would specifically target susceptible people from North and Central Gujarat.
The entire scam came to light when the police arrested Harshil Ghanshyam Patel, a resident of Sundarvan Apartments in Naranpura. He, along with his associates in the city, Yogesh Dave and Sunil Shinde, ran the farce business since September 2018, from the Udan Holidays office. They also had an associate, Mahendra Kantilal Patel, who claimed to own a small hotel in Canada.
The team would demand Rs15-20 lakhs from every person for the work permit visa. They would also extort more money from the victims by telling them that they could invest in their relative Kantilal Patel’s hotel in Canada and get a stake. They would say that the victims would get access to lodging and boarding at the hotel.
Upon investigation, the police learned that the gang would go to Mumbai, stay in posh hotels and party there with the extorted money. The police have not been able to recover any money as of yet. They are also looking for more people who have been subjected to this gang’s fraudulent activities.
