Police bust immigration racket, five held

MUMBAI: The city police on Monday claimed to have busted an immigration racket that allegedly used to send people to European countries on the pretext of location hunting for films.
    
Anees Huzefa Zahoor (38), Irshad Siddiqui (33), Shahid Mohammed Khan (37), Vikram Sahoo (27) and Shehnaz Mubin (36) were arrested by the police from Mumbai and Delhi days before they were about to send a group of three hailing from Punjab, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria said.
    
Zahoor and Siddiqui, who hail from Delhi, are partners in an event management company and had also made a movie recently. They also used to supply junior artistes for films and serials, he added.
    
"They used to make applications for location hunting for films to various European embassies in Delhi and Mumbai and only Zahoor used to return while his ‘assistants’ on the film production unit stayed back. The gang charged over Rs seven lakh for one client," Maria said.
    
The city police acted upon information that the Italian consulate here had rejected the application of four people after they found certain inferior quality paper on the applicants' passports.
    
"The visa application of the gang was recently rejected and Shahid Khan used to replace the page where the rejected stamp was placed. They thought of taking advantage of the liberal entry and exit policy in the Schengen area and applied for Italian visa," Maria said.
    
The gang have confessed to having been sent four people to Germany in July last year, he added.