In a significant breakthrough, the Surat cybercrime police have dismantled a gang involved in fabricating counterfeit bank statements for visa processing at an immigration consultancy office in the Singanpor area. The police arrested Vishal Vaghasiya and Nishant Mahato, seizing a large quantity of fake bank stamps from various private and public sector banks.
The accused used the website ‘ilovepdf’ to generate fraudulent bank statements and were also found to be involved in creating fake flight tickets and visa letters. A case of forgery and cheating was registered against the trio at the Chowk Bazar police station.
The operation unfolded after a confidential tip-off from an informant, leading a team of police officials from the Surat cybercrime unit, under the guidance of a police sub-inspector, to raid the Shine Immigration office in the Silver Stone arcade in Singanpor. The consultancy, which advertised services like IELTS, PTE, Student Visas, SAT, Spoken English, and Abroad Education Consultancy, was found to be involved in fabricating documents for immigration purposes.
During the raid, police discovered a wide array of round seals from various banks, including IDBI, Bank of Baroda, IndusInd Bank, Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Union Bank, Kotak Mahindra, RBL Bank, and IDFC Bank, among others. The case is still under investigation, and further arrests may follow.
