Their only crime was dreaming for a better life in the Gulf. When as many as 120 persons from Dakshina Kannada and neighbouring Kerala took a route that guaranteed them jobs in the Middle-East, little did they know that they would end up losing their hard-earned money to a fake visa operator in Mangalore.
Today, the coastal city has illegal players of all kinds, and the police are at pains to apprehend them. The spotlight of the ministry of external affairs (MEA) fell on them after one of these operators embarrassed the central government by successfully running a fake visa business in the name of the Bahrain-based American Mission Hospital.
“Mangalore has at least 10 such operators, who make a living out of fleecing people who wish to go abroad for building their careers.
We have formed an elite group of police officers, comprising policemen from Mangalore, for nabbing these operators,” an MEA officer said.
Speaking on the issue, he said, “The MEA has discussed this with people at the highest level, including foreign affairs minister SM Krishna and his deputy, Shashi Tharoor. This time, they have gone too far. Using the name of a prestigious hospital in Bahrain for the purpose was the last straw.”
District crime investigation bureau head Venkatesh Prasanna, who had nabbed two such fake visa operators in Mangalore recently, said, “These operators have no scruples. They use modern technology and information to con innocent overseas job hunters into shelling out money by spouting names of non-existent companies in the Gulf.”
Intelligence officials stated that the American Missionary Hospital had objected to an advertisement bearing its name in a Malayalam newspaper. Stating that the hospital had outsourced its recruitment activities to a Mangalore-based HR agency, JCG Associates, the advertisement had asked aspiring employees to approach their office at Mangalore.
Rosakutty, one of the victims of the fraudulent agency, said: “When I approached the agency, the people there instructed me to deposit a sum of Rs15,000 in advance, and then follow up with a cheque for Rs75,000 in the next month. They assured me that I would get the work permit, as well as a nursing job in the hospital. Fortunately, the police got to them before I could pay them the second instalment. Sure, I have lost Rs15,000, but that’s better than losing Rs75,000.”
“One of the accused, Kenneth D’Souza, has already confessed to the police that a few persons he had ‘recruited’ belonged to poor families, who had to sell their land to pay for fake visas,” a police officer said.
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