The Mumbai crime branch arrested six persons, including the brother of a former BMC Corporator, in March, in connection with a racket that allegedly sent at least 80 people to Canada and US illegally. Some of them who went to Canada would be offered “dunki” route to the US by the gang.
The entire operation planned till the last detail involved two sets of passports — original and “mundi cut” — where the photo on the passport is replaced, foldable stamps, two chewing gums and Rs 10 coins.
The Mumbai crime branch in March first week arrested one Ajit Puri alleged to be the mastermind along with Roshan Dudhwadkar, Sanjay Chavan, Sudhir Sawant, RP Singh and one Raju Chach alias Imtiyaz. The six are now in judicial custody and police are on the lookout for four others.
Explaining how the modus operandi worked, an officer said that people whose visas to Canada/US are rejected multiple times and want to go to the US are approached by agents who promise to send them by “pushing”.
As per police, Puri, who has 14 similar cases registered against him is one of the main persons operating the racket from Mumbai. Agents, mainly from Gujarat, approached Puri, who negotiated with those wanting to go abroad and are willing to pay.
Depending upon the desperation of the person, Puri charged them anywhere between Rs 30 and Rs 75 lakh. This included money for providing passports, fake documents, a SIM card, phone, Bluetooth device and training them.
Once they agree to pay, the process begins.
It starts with the gang purchasing a passport from a citizen who has visa of a country where the person wants to go. An officer said that a person with US or Canada visa would sell their passport for around Rs 5 lakh.
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The other accused would then cut the face of the original person and replace it with the face of the person who wanted to go abroad. Here the expertise of Sudhir Sawant, a DTP operator was used.
The “mundi cut” passport would also be used keeping in mind the age of the person wanting to go abroad and the one whose passport is used. Sanjay Chavan was an expert at stitching the passport.
On the day when the person was to fly out, he/she would be asked to carry two folders by the gang. One folder would have the “mundi-cut” passport with original visa while the second folder would contain the persons original passport with a forged visa and boarding pass which would be kept inside the bag .
The person would be trained by the accused and would be asked to remember the name of the person whose passport was being used.
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One of the accused Dudhwadkar, brother of a former corporator, would be present at the airport as he would’ve booked ticket for a later flight — something that eventually led to unravelling of the scam. He would have a Bluetooth device on a new SIM and the person wanting to go would also be given a new SIM card, phone and Bluetooth device to coordinate with Dudhwadkar.
The person would enter the Mumbai airport claiming to be the person whose passport was used. He would show the “mundi-cut” passport to the CISF security and at the check-in counter.
An official said that the private airlines counter is not given access to passport details hence they couldn’t check in whose name the passport was registered.
After checking in luggage and getting the boarding pass, the person would clear security check. All along Dudhwadkar present at close proximity would guide him through his Bluetooth device.
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Now, before reaching the immigration stage, the person would be asked to keep the “mundi-cut” passport inside and remove the folder containing the original passport.
“The reason for this is that immigration officials have access to passport details and if the ‘mundi-cut’ passport was used, they’d find it immediately in their system,” the official said.
He added, “Here the original passport with fake visa and boarding pass is shown. As immigration officials do not have access to visa or boarding pass details, they don’t find out that the visa and boarding pass are forged. Thus the person would cross immigration.”
The person would also be trained on how to answer immigration officials. The only way they would be exposed is if they are not able to answer immigration officials.
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On crossing the immigration, the person would be told to go to the washroom and would chew on chewing gums that was given by the gang member. Then he uses a foldable rubber stamp to put fake immigration stamps on the “mundi-cut” passport and on the boarding pass.
They would then dispose of the stamp by sticking it to a Rs 10 coin with chewing gums to make it heavy and flush it down the loo, so that it doesn’t surface again.
They would show the “mundi-cut” passport with visa and immigration stamp to the airline staff and board the flight. The official said that once they land, the checking is not ao rigorous and there are members of the gang at the other airport as well to guide them.
The official said that the scam was busted after officials found that Dudhwadkar was taking flight to Thailand every month along with someone flying to US or Canada.
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The Mumbai police special branch then asked the crime branch to probe the matter in February last week following which the police arrested Dudhwadkar and spilled the beans on others. An official said that the police and airport officials are taking steps to plug the loophole in the airport security procedures.