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Touts in Canada helped set up fake weddings
Indian police are working with their Canadian counterparts to determine the activities of a international syndicate arranging “contract marriages” for Indo-Canadians out to make a quick buck.
Police in Punjab believe that a gang they busted recently has touts who arrange for Indo-Canadians to travel to India, marry and get huge amounts in dowry payments.
The activities of the gang came to light after an investigation led to the arrest of five people, including a woman in the city of Jagroan in Punjab.
According to police investigators, the gang had its members spread across Punjab, who were in constant liaison with touts based in Canada.
While investigating the case, the police came face to face with a number of fake marriages, and forged documents and as well as transactions involving huge amounts exchanged in cash.
In many cases, young brides were dumped at their parents home after their grooms fled with the dowry.
One of the cases has led to the suicide of a Canadian drug addict, Amanpal Singh, who felt hecould make a quick buck with his Canadian status in India.
It all began with a fax sent to the police from Canada by Tejinder Singh — a resident of Brampton — who was in search of his 22-year-old brother Amanpal Singh.
“As per Tejinder, his brother had come to Punjab in December last year and reached Jagraon in January.
The man, who was sent by Canada-based fixer Robin Singh to Jagraon, was looking for a bride.
Tejinder had last spoken to his brother in January. Since then they had not heard from him,” said DIG (Ludhiana Range) M F Faroouqi.
The Jagraon police, which began investigating the case under SSP Gurpreet Singh Toor and SP (D) Harjit Singh Pannu, said Amanpal had committed suicide in a hotel room in January. Following this, a person he knew in Jagraon had packed his body in a suitcase and dumped it in Sudhar canal.
“Amanpal was in touch with Kulwant Singh, a resident of Bassian, who managed his stay as they searched for brides. He, along with Paramjit Kaur, showed Amanpal many girls. However, Amanpal was rejected each time, as his parents back in Canada were separated and he used to stay alone,” said SSP Toor.
He added: “Tejinder claimed that his brother had told him that the touts were pressuring him to get married to a girl whose parents were willing to pay a huge amount and that they (touts) had even taken away his passport.”
Amanpal, meanwhile, committed suicide. At the time of his death, he was staying at Kuki Hotel. The hotel owner, Gulshan Rai, instead of informing the police, asked Kulwant and his team to dispose of the body.
“Rai, who was in-charge of arranging for the stay did not want a bad name for himself,” said Toor.
The Jagraon police have also been approached by a 26-year-old postgraduate from Khadoor village, Jasbir Kaur, who got married to a Canada-based NRI in 2009.
“After one month of my marriage, my husband went back to Canada. For six months, we spoke over the phone. Then I got to know that my husband had not applied for my visa. Since then, I have not been able to get in touch with him,” said Jasbir Kaur, whose wedding, too, was fixed by a tout like Kulwant Singh.
“Iqbal Singh Roopa, a middleman, had approached us at a wedding with the proposal. It was only after the wedding that we came to know that the entire baraat was a fraud. The in-laws were mere actors,” said Jasbir.
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