HYDERABAD: As many as 20 people from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have been booked by the Delhi police in 11 separate cases for submitting fake documents to the US embassy in a bid to get a non-immigrant visa.
According to complaints given by embassy officers, students, education service consultants, software training institution operators and fake document creators have been booked for submitting fraudulent bank, educational degrees and experience documents. In some cases students admitted that the documents were fake when confronted by US visa officers.
Accused picked up from across country
The action was taken after US embassy officials gave complaints between March 24 and April 8. Sources said several arrests have already been made. On Sunday night, police arrested Kapil, an education consultancy operator from Chaitanyapuri in Hyderabad. Police from Telangana said they were unaware of any arrests.
A senior police officer from Delhi told TOI that they have picked up several accused from across the country, including AP, Telangana and Kerala. “The investigation is on,” said official from Chanakyapuri PS. First complaint against offenders in Telugu states was lodged by Cory M Thomas, assistant regional security officer, investigator, US embassy, on March 24 against M Venkat Reddy of Musheerabad and others for an application for non-immigrant student visa.
Venkat submitted a visa application claiming to be a software developer for Terasoft Solutions with monthly income of 5 lakh. He gave appointment letter, recommendation letter, pay stubs. He furnished a loan letter from a bank showing he and his father secured 25 lakh loan. He submitted a bank letter showing father’s savings account having 35 lakh. Apart from degree certificates of OU, Venkat furnished three recommendation letters from professors of an engineering college. But, during visa interview at US embassy, Venkat admitted his documents were obtained through fraudulent means and he had not been employed since 2016.
Vellanki Overseas Education Advisors in Bagh Amberpet helped Venkat with the documents after he paid ₹50,000 to agent Sravan Kumar. Venkat did not even complete his engineering course, complainant alleged. Accused have been charged with cheating, forgery, fraudulently or dishonestly using as genuine any document and criminal conspiracy against accused.
Sai Chandu Reddy of Hanamkonda applied for a non-immigrant US student visa claiming he has completed machine learning with python course from September 2021 to February 2022 at Softech Computers and submitted a certificate of merit by the institution. He also submitted a bank balance certificate in the name of his father showing a balance of 30 lakh and also a loan sanction certificate by bank for 30 lakh. During visa interview, he admitted he did not attend classes at Softech Computers. He said he paid 4,000 to Madhumitha of training institution and 22,000 to Ganesh of an education consultancy for fake certificates. A case was booked against Chandu.