Visa Fraud: Files of 64 people with a high risk of migration ‘disappear’ from India’s French Embassy

Ex-embassy officials Shubham Shokeen and Aarti Mandal allegedly made Rs.32,00,000, charging Rs.50,000 per visa by clearing files of questionable candidates

Ex-embassy officials Shubham Shokeen and Aarti Mandal allegedly made Rs.32,00,000, charging Rs.50,000 per visa by clearing files of questionable candidates
Ex-embassy officials Shubham Shokeen and Aarti Mandal allegedly made Rs.32,00,000, charging Rs.50,000 per visa by clearing files of questionable candidates

Visa Fraud: Two former French Embassy officials booked by CBI

French Embassy in India is now facing controversy of visa issuing fraud and accepting bribes for issuing visas and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is swung into action. Indian staffers working in French Embassy in New Delhi are caught for these dubious activities. Files related to the Schengen Visa of 64 people having a high risk of migration have “disappeared” from the French Embassy here in a massive fraud allegedly committed by its two former employees booked by the CBI recently, officials said Monday. Former embassy officials Shubham Shokeen and Aarti Mandal allegedly made Rs.32,00,000 charging Rs.50,000 per visa by clearing files of questionable candidates, they said.

Both ex-officials handled 484 visa files between Jan 1 and May 6

The agency said that Shokeen and Mandal handled 484 visa files between January 1 and May 6, of which 64 files pertained to individuals having a “high risk” of migration, like young farmers or unemployed persons from Punjab who had never travelled before and lacked the profile to hold a Schengen Visa. The agency suspects that Mandal and Shokeen allegedly destroyed the documents and files from the visa department to leave no traces of this illicit activity, they said.

CBI searches 4 locations in Visa Fraud case

The CBI on last Friday conducted searches in Delhi, Patiala, Gurdaspur, and Jammu, during which documents and electronic evidence like laptops, mobile phones, and suspicious passports, etc., have been recovered. The agency has alleged that Shokeen and Mandal, both former workers at the Visa Department of the Embassy of France in New Delhi, committed visa fraud in a conspiracy from January to May this year.

Three other accused booked

The CBI has alleged that three other accused booked in the FIR — Navjot Singh from Jammu and Kashmir and Chetan Sharma and Satwinder Singh Purewal, both from Punjab had allegedly submitted fake and forged letters purportedly written by Maersk Fleet Management and Technology India Private Limited, Bangalore to the Consulate General of France, Bengaluru, for issuing entry visas for their joining at Emma Maersk, Edith Maersk, and Munkebo Maersk, respectively at Port-Le-Havre, France.

The whole conspiracy

“It was further alleged that in pursuance to the said criminal conspiracy, applicants from Punjab and Jammu submitted fake and forged letters purportedly written by a private company based at Bengaluru to the Consulate General of France, Bengaluru, for issuing entry visas for their joining private companies in Port-Le-Havre, France,” a CBI spokesperson had said in a statement. The CBI charged that Shokeen and Mandal facilitated their visa for Rs.50,000 each without the knowledge and approval of the visa department Head at the embassy and displaced the records.

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3 COMMENTS

  1. Respected Sree Iyer, Rajiv Malhotra and other seniors of 1970 era :
    We are sure you remember the slogan which GOI para-dropped into your soft heart, « National treasury is very low in foreign exchange, your nation India needs your contribution ».
    Fully fed by your soft heart- with passage of time Kid on one day found his way into Indian bureaucracy as a low rank employee of an Indian Embassy.
    There was no OCI card when Kid was taking Baby-steps.
    Kid became a Babu-minor :
    Example Nr. 1 :
    There was a ban on travel to India (visa ban) of Terror-business entrepreneuers. Babu-minor through a maze of Indian laws found an escape route/back door for these Terror-business profiters and the group travelled to India.
    With OCI card holders, Govt. of India has shared goodwill, reciprocative (unwritten) friendly relationship, and interests.
    Babu-minor-The Fisherman seeking to hook up the trusting OCI card holder (non-paying target- sap his energies) found micro ambivalency in labyrinth of rules and then barked his dictate.
    Now 4 (almost) generations since independnce :
    Is the top leadership oblivious about such practices at Indian Embassy/ies-a routine ?
    By default ? Or by intent ?
    There was no echo to a secured (registered) written letter delivered to top leadership.
    Dear Reader,
    Actionable proofs available if you consider it a serious matter.

  2. Time for India to increase surveillance of every person irrespective of his religion & state. More from this Bengali who appear to be migrants from Bangladesh

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