By Mata Press Service

Immigration Canada officials are helping Indian authorities uncover the operations of a massive visa scam run by a millionaire in the Punjab city of Chandigarh.
Initial investigations have already turned up dozens of cases where fake financial documents supplied by officials from private and national Indian banks were used by applicants to obtain visas from British, Canadian and other high commissions and embassies in India.
Applicants had paid amounts ranging from C$3,000 up to C$10,000 to seek visitor visas and permanent residency immigration to other countries.
Indian police have detained Chandigarh millionaire Amit Kakkar, owner and director of Healthyway Immigration and he has been booked for cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy.
“The British, Canadian and Australian embassies contacted the police and shared information about the fake documents. We are investigating the matter thoroughly,” Deputy Superintendent of Police Ashish Kapoor said in Chandigarh.
Police investigations so far have shown that out of the 252 financial documents examined, 248 were found fake. Many, including about 50 from student visa applicants, were attached to forms to come to Canada.
“In one case alone, all 112 bank documents supposedly issued by the Patiala Road branch of the Oriental Bank of Commerce in Rajpura town (40 km from Chandigarh) have been found to be fake,” Kapoor said.
He said the role of nationalised banks in this illegal operation is also being investigated.
The role of certain bank officials in preparing fake bank documents will be investigated, he added.
“Other fake documents have been issued illegally in the name of banks in other parts of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. We are investigating everything,” an investigating officer told IANS.
The financial documents were sought by the embassies of various countries from immigration aspirants to ensure that they have the financial capacity to go and support themselves in the new country.
One complainant Amandeep Singh said accused owner Kakkar took about C$43,000 from him to send him to Canada.
Manjit Singh of Phase XI, Mohali, Punjab said, “Me and my younger brother had applied for Canada visas in July 2009 and the firm had arranged a loan for us but in November 2009, we received a communication that our visas have been rejected permanently,” Singh told reporters.
Several people associated with the company, including the owner’s mother Saroj Kakkar and wife Swati Kakkar, are on the run say police. “The house of the Kakkars in Phase II Mohali is locked. Lookout notices against Kakkar and some officials have been issued,” police said.
The income tax department of India had raided the office and residences of the firm’s owners in 2010 but it is not known what became of the investigation.
On its website, Healthyway Immigration claims that it has around 84 offices all over India.
“The company is also flourishing globally with its offices in various countries like Singapore, Australia and UK. More than 128 colleges and universities all over the world have authorized the company as their educational consultants. Also, most of these institutes claim that Healthyway Immigration has channeled the maximum number of students towards them as compared to any other immigration company in the world,” the website boasts.
Healthyway Immigration which opened its dorrs in 2001 was recently awarded with “Best Immigration Company of the Year 2009“ by Hindustan Times, India’s leading English Newspaper. It is also the recipient of the “Business Achiever of North” by Times of India, and “Business Icon of Punjab” by India Today.
Last month, the South Asian Post reported that  Canada is likely to soon introduce fingerprinting for Indian citizens seeking Canadian visas.
The new measure is part of Canadian plans to boost border security and check immigration fraud. India, which is the second biggest source of immigration for Canada, will be the first country to be subjected to fingerprinting.
The Canadian consulate in Chandigarh, which holds a high profile in Western Canada’s Indo-Canadian community, is among the diplomatic missions in India that faced a high incidence of fraudulent and forged documentation submitted with visa applications.
An Immigration Canada document made public by the South Asian Post in an earlier report stated “fraud is omnipresent in Chandigarh and is found in every sort of document, Indian and Canadian.”
“We have seen copies of forged Canadian passports, forged PR cards, forced Notices of Assessment from the Canadian Revenue Agency, forged Indian bank documents, forged employment letters both Indian and Canadian, forged letters from Canadian funeral homes and from Canadian educational institutions,” said the documents.
“Entire ‘kits’ of forged documents are regularly seen, supporting requests for parents to visit their children in Canada and to attend the funerals in Canada of close relatives.”
Fraud is being detected in the applications by religious workers for Gurdwaras or Sikh temples in Canada, people applying to be nannies and in spousal applications. Citizenship and Immigration Canada acknowledges roughly 1,000 fraud marriage cases are reported annually in Punjab.
The highest refusal rates are for study at private career colleges, some of which recruit widely and indiscriminately. One private career college in Punjab has, since June 2006, issued more than 500 letters of acceptance through local agents for students destined for Canada.
A site visit to the college in Canada revealed it only had four classrooms.
Two years ago, Canada Border Service Agency agents discovered dozens of people using Jet Airways, India’s largest private carrier arriving at Pearson International Airport with fake travel documents. The airline came close to losing its landing privileges in Canada.