Punjab lawyer, sons held for immigration fraud

JALANDHAR - A lawyer and his two sons have been arrested from Himachal Pradesh’s Solan town for duping at least seven youths from across Punjab of Rs.18.5 lakh on the pretext of sending them abroad, police said Friday.

The accused — James Masih and his sons Pankaj and Ankur — were running a travel and immigration agency in this Punjab town and had disappeared after taking large sums of money from people.

“We received complaints from seven people against this immigration agency. They had taken around Rs.18.5 lakh from them and promised to send them to Canada. But a few weeks back they closed their office and disappeared,” a police official said here.

“We arrested them yesterday (Thursday) evening from Solan in Himachal Pradesh. Their interrogation is on and we are trying to unearth their other links in this illegal trade,” he added.

In a separate case, Punjab Police arrested a man named Gurmeet Singh, who was running an illegal immigration business in Barnala town.

Police recovered seven passports and seven driving licences from Gurmeet’s possession.

“We received many complaints against Gurmeet. So far, he has duped nearly dozen youths in Punjab of lakhs of rupees on the pretext of sending them to different European countries. Our investigation is on,” said Senior Superintendent of Police (Barnala) Gurpreet Singh Toor.