New Delhi:

A 42-year-old Punjabi singer has been arrested for his alleged involvement in a racket that sent people to the US on fake visas, officials said on Thursday.

Fatehjit Singh, a resident of Punjab’s Jalandhar, was arrested from the Indira Gandhi (IGI) airport in Delhi on Wednesday, they said, adding that the accused and other members of the racket were trying to send a passenger to the United States via the “dunki” route.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI) Usha Rangnani said during interrogation, the accused revealed that he had studied up to Class 12 and is a singer by profession. He also told police that he has participated in shows across the world.

The accused came in contact with an agent, Sultan Singh, who used to dupe people on the pretext of sending them to the US, and started working with him to earn quick money, the DCP said.

The accused further disclosed that one Gurpreet Singh had approached Sultan Singh to go to the US. The accused promised to arrange his journey and manage all documentation work in lieu of Rs 50 lakh.

An advance amount of Rs 10 lakh was paid before the journey and Sultan Singh had given Rs 4 lakh to the accused as his commission. It was also decided that the remaining amount would be paid after the passenger reached his destination.

The accused told police that with the help of Sultan Singh and other associates, he had made arrangements for the passenger’s journey to the US five times, travelling through different countries, but the plan did not materialise.

In the fifth attempt in March, the accused and other agents tried to send Gurpreet Singh to the US via Kazakhstan but the latter was caught by authorities in Kazakhstan and deported back to India, the DCP said.

The Kazakhastan authorities had suspected that the passenger was travelling on a fake visa as two pages of his passport were found to be torn.

It was found that in one of the previous attempts, Gurpreet Singh was provided with a fake Brazilian visa but was deported back to India from Qatar.

This time, the two pages of the passport were removed by Sultan Singh.

Gurpreet Singh was interrogated and arrested by the Delhi Police from the IGI airport in March. At his instance, Sultan Singh, a resident of Punjab’s Tarn Taran, was also arrested in March but Fatehjit Singh was on the run.

The DCP said investigation is on to unearth the involvement of other agents. The bank accounts of Fathejit Singh would be scrutinised to ascertain his possible involvement in other similar cases, the officer added.

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