CBI books four for visa fraud to help minor boy to get to Europe

The CBI has booked four persons including parents of a minor boy for allegedly obtaining two passports for him to unsuccessfully help him immigrate to a European country, officials said on Tuesday.

The CBI recently conducted searches at the premises of the accused in Delhi and Punjab, they said.

The alleged fraud of identity theft was detected by the French Embassy while processing a visa application when it found that same biometrics were used on a different passport number on which visa for Spain was sought and was rejected by its Embassy, the officials said.

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It is alleged that Simal Singh and his wife Manjit Kaur obtained a passport number 'U2486935' for their minor son from Jalandhar on January 20, 2020.

They later conspired with Kirpal Singh Notay and his wife Suresh Kumari Notay, both residents of Tilak Nagar in Delhi, to obtain another passport for their son.

Simal Singh and Manjit Kaur allegedly prepared a fake birth certificate in the name of Sarvjit Singh Notay, showing him as the son of the Notay couple with a photograph of their minor son pasted on it.

They allegedly managed to get two passports -- one issued by RPO Jalandhar and another from RPO New Delhi -- for their minor son, the officials said.

In furtherance of the conspiracy, they applied for a Spain visa for their son using passport issued from New Delhi RPO, which was rejected on March 22, 2022. The second attempt to apply for the visa also resulted in the rejection on May 11, 2022, the officials said.

In a desperate attempt to make it to European shores, they again tried their luck at the French Embassy using passport issued by Jalandhar RPO, which was also rejected on December 12, 2022 when their plans were busted as biometrics matched with that of the rejected Spain visa application using a fake passport.