US dream creat trouble for 17 Gujaratis

Seventeen Gujaratis were taken to Hyderabad by a travel agent with the promise of arranging a passage to the US, were rounded up by the Hyderabad police from a hotel on Tuesday and handed over to the local Gujaratis Association for sending them to their homes.

None of them had any travel documents. Ahmedabad-based travel agent Rakesh Shah had promised to arrange papers for them for Rs 18 lakh each. They had paid him amounts ranging from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 3 lakh and the balance was to be paid by their families back in Gujarat after they confirmed their safe arrival in the US, Hyderabad police sources said.

The group of 17, which included nine women, was found in a hotel in Troop Bazar after the arrest of seven Gujaratis at the Hyderabad airport on Monday.

Of the seven, three were subagents of Rakesh, while four others were passengers who were caught with forged passports shortly before they were to board a flight for Dubai, enroute to the US.

While the subagents are Deepak, Dashrath, and Mitesh Shah, the passengers are Reena Patel, Saroj Patel, Murari Bhai and Hitesh Patel.

They have been booked under provisions of the Passport Act, and also under several Sections of the Indian Penal Code, including Section 419 (impersonation), 420 (cheating) and 409 (forgery), said Hyderabad Police Commissioner P Ramalu when contacted on telephone.

Ramalu said the four arrested passengers had also been staying at the same hotel from where the 17 others had been rounded up. All belong to Mehsana, Kadi and Ahmedabad. They had been taken to Hyderabad five days ago, police sources said.

The police commissioner said Rakesh Shah, who was in Hyderabad when the police made the arrests at the airport, but fled on sensing trouble.

A team of Hyderabad city police is coming to Ahmedabad in search of Rakesh, who is also wanted by Ahmedabad police in cases of a similar nature.

"His modus operandi was simple: replacing the photographs of original passport holders with those of his clients, but retaining the original names and other details. Deepak, Dashrath and Mitesh, all from Ahmedabad worked with Rakesh and were assigned to take care of any trouble at the airport.

They have confessed that earlier they used Ahmedabad airport for their operations, but had shifted to Hyderabad after security increased at the former", said DCP (Special Branch) Jayram Reddy.

"We have registered cases against the agents and four others because we recovered forged and fake travel documents from them. Nothing was recovered from the 17 others so we have let them go," he added.

Republished from The Indian Express