CBI arrests illegal migrant after 22 years on RCN basis

Luck finally ran out on Roorh Ram, who was leading a comfortable life in Canada after migrating there in 1998 allegedly using fake documents to get a visa, as the CBI arrested him recently on his arrival at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, officials said on Thursday.

The Interpol had issued a Red Corner Notice (RCN) against Ram in 2009, on a request from the CBI in an immigration racket case, they said.

The CBI had in 1998 busted the racket run with the connivance of Preeti Ahluwalia Grover, Immigration Program Officer at the Canada High Commission, who was booked by the agency, they added.

Ram had allegedly used their services in 1998 to illegally get a Canadian visitor visa, the officials said.

When he arrived at the Indira Gandhi International Airport with his family on a Canadian passport in the wee hours of February 25, immigration authorities alerted the CBI about the pending RCN, after which the agency took him into custody, they said.

A trial court had convicted Grover in 2017.

Ram has been sent to police custody, the officials said.

The agency had registered a case against Grover, the then Immigration Program Officer in visitor visa section in the Canada High Commission, and five others on January 21, 1999, they said.

It is alleged that the accused committed various illegalities while issuing Canadian visitor visas to Indian nationals between March and June 1998, the officials added.

The accused allegedly issued visas in favour of Roorh Ram and others based on false and fabricated documents as well as by circumventing the general issuance process, they said.

The CBI alleged that the intention was to smuggle Indian nationals into Canada for pecuniary gains.

The agency had filed a charge sheet against Grover on December 22, 2001, followed by a supplementary charge sheet on March 21, 2013, against Roorh Ram and others.

Ram had comfortably settled in Canada and had acquired a Canadian passport, the officials said.

"He must have thought that the case has gone cold after the conviction of the main accused, and he can skip immigration to meet his family. But a Red Corner Notice was issued against him which led to his arrest," an officer said.

He said entry to the USA and Canada was the most prized achievement in the 90s when lots of Indians sold their land to go there.

The agents in connivance with Grover offered such deals to enter Canada using illegal means for pecuniary gains, the officials said.