The Central Bureau of Investigation conducted searches in Delhi, Patiala, Gurdaspur, and Jammu, where several documents and electronic devices, including laptops and mobile handsets, were discovered to have false identities and were recovered for security purposes. Finally, they were caught in the processing of their illegal functions.
According to CBI records, the files relating to the Schegen visas of 64 people who were at risk of flying out of the country were from the French Embassy here, where massive frauds were committed by its former employees. Former embassy officials Shubham Shokeen and Aarti Mandal have made Rs. 32 lakhs by charging Rs. 50 thousand per visa and clearing the files of the candidates. They worked accurately in order to understand the process and carried out these heinous activities, causing reputational damage to the country and to themselves. They were also members of the French Embassy’s department in New Delhi, where they worked and started to process their ideologies for about 4 months before being apprehended.
The CBI has arrested three more people for providing fake documents: Navjot Singh from Jammu and Kashmir, Chetan Sharma, and Satwinder Singh Purewal from Punjab. Maersk Fleet Management and Technology India Private Limited, Bangalore, has submitted the same information collected to the Consulate General of France, Bangalore, in issuing entry visas for the joining of Emma Maersk, Edith Maersk, and Munkebo Maersk, respectively, at Port-Le-Havre, France.
As previously stated, the former two employees handled approximately 484 visa files between January 1st and May 6th, 64 of which concerned immigrants with a high risk of migration, such as young farmers and unemployed Punjabis—those who had never travelled abroad before. The agency suspects those ones, and suspects that they have deleted the records from the visa department in order to avoid any precise doubts about the illegal activities that have been carried out.
