Punjab farmers, ready to run errands in US, arrested

Victims of kabootarbazi, the four men were held for posing as Lion's Club members having fake visa documents

The incidents in Australia and now in Canada are not enough to dampen the Punjabi spirit.

Farmers in Punjab are still more interested in living the American dream than tilling their fields and therefore, are the favourite victims of the human trafficking agents.

The arrest of four farmers by the Delhi Police yesterday, who sold their farmland to go to the United States, is a case in point.u00a0

The four farmers, hailing from villages in Firozepur and Ludhiana were made to pose as members of the Lion's Club who were going to the US to attend a convention.

In fact, the United States embassy had complained to the Delhi Police regarding an unusual number of visa applications for a Lion's Club convention. The embassy told the police that more than 400 applications were received for the convention. During investigation by the police, it was revealed that more than 75 per cent of the requests were from Punjab.

On further probe, the documents submitted by Devender Singh, 34, Shyam Lal, 23, Ankur Nagpal, 19 and Amanpreet Singh, 27 were found fake.u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0
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On interrogation, they told the police that trafficking agents roam around freely in Firozepur and Ludhiana in the quest of prospective victims. "The agents charged them Rs 5-10 lakh for fake documents. On the full payment of money, they were provided fake IT returns and other documents," a Crime Branch official said, requesting anonymity.

"It has come to our notice that these agents are operating in a very large number in Punjab," said a senior police official.

Past incidentsu00a0u00a0
>>In April, this year the police cracked a human trafficking racket allegedly led by a woman. The police arrested Bal Bahadur Karki and Gurcharan Singh from the Paharganj area of Central Delhi. The gang had duped around 15-20 people by promising them to send them to Malaysia.
>>On January 30, 2008, the police in Connaught Place arrested a tout who used forged documents to procure visas on religious grounds. The arrest was made after three people with forged documents applied for visa to the US embassy. The three had applied for the visas on the pretext of performing religious singing at Gurudwara Guru Nanak Darbar in Tracy, USA.
>>On February 23, 2008 the Delhi police, crime branch arrested three agents for allegedly sending over 100 people to the United States using forged documents. The three were arrested from the Prashant Vihar area in Rohini.