With the help of websites created after buying cheap domains to lure people, and luxurious offices they set up in Mumbai, two SSC dropouts from Thane district are believed to have duped close to 100 persons who wished to immigrate to Canada, of several crores of rupees.
The tricksters are now in the custody of Mumbai police’s Economic Offences’ Wing (EOW) after three prospective immigrants from Punjab, who lost Rs 18 lakhs in the process, lodged a complaint. There are at least four offences registered against the two suspects in Mumbai and some more cases in Delhi, EOW sources said.
The suspects have been identified as Mansoor Abdul Sattar Munshi (42), a resident of Mira Road, and Shakeel Ahmed Ansari (43), a resident of Nalasopara. Mansoor is believed to be the kingpin and had earlier used the names Raj, Raju Srivastav, Mayank Doshi, John etc. EOW is looking out for one more accomplice.
In their last venture, the two had opened up an immigration office, K S Enterprises Travel Experts, at Dream Mall in Bhandup. They had also launched a website by the name of the same company, claiming to be immigration and placement agents. “Their office was a luxurious one with welldressed employees, who would interview you immediately and seek your passport and other documents. This was all done to instill confidence in the prospective immigrant,” an EOW officer said.
The clients were handled initially by employees and later by Shakeel Ansari and Mansoor would come into picture only when the client was convinced enough to pay money. “Mansoor would take the final interview and make the victim pay money before handing him a Canada visastamped passport. We have found out that the visas were all fake,” EOW sources said.
EOW alleges that Mansoor would shut down his firm within a couple of months once the targetted earning was done and disappear. Mansoor opened up similar shops with names like Solar Enterprises in Powai, Comet Enterprises in Bandra and R K International in Malad in the past one and half years. From each victim, Mansoor and team would charge approximately Rs 10 lakh and together they are suspected to have cheated close to 80 persons so far.
“Before the office in Bhandup, Mansoor had opened Solar Enterprises at Powai, where most of the victims were Nepali nationals. Most of them have lodged complaints at local police stations,” EOW sources said. In the present case, three Punjab residents, Mansingh (24), Daya Singh and Gurteerath Singh, all residents of Amritsar got cheated by K S Enterprises and hence lodged complaints with the EOW. “Their USP used to be their website. Nowadays domain names can be purchased cheap and website hosting has also become inexpensive. The websites lured victims to their offices,” EOW sources added.
Additional CP (EOW) Rajvardhan confirmed the two arrests saying, “They are part of a gang that cheated prospective immigrants. We are looking for some more people.”
Source: http://www.mumbaimirror.com, Picture Source: Mid Day.com
