MUMBAI: Ravi Kumar (30) was a carpenter by profession but his visa application for South Korea, the arrested con gang impersonated him as a dentist from Nashik. When the police visited his clinic at Nashik they found no doctor by this name but a dispensary was run by another woman dentist who has nothing to do with the case. This police say was just the tip off the iceberg in the human smuggling racket involving two senior Indian Navy officials.
Last week the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) arrested lieutenant Vipin Dagra of Indian Navy posted at Lion Gate in Mumbai for allegedly aiding and abetting human smuggling racket. During the course of investigation police on Sunday arrested three more persons namely Dagra’s boss sub lieutenant Brahma Jyoti Sharma, his friend Simran Deji, Ravi Kumar and Deepak Mehra. Police said sub lieutenant Brahma Jyoti Sharma was posted at INS Shivaji at Lonavala.
The city crime branch on Monday produced Ravi Kumar and his accomplice Deepak Mehra who were caught from their village Ranbir Singh Pura in Jammu, were produced before the 37th Metropolitan Magistrate court and were remanded to police custody.
Interestingly Deepak Mehra and Ravi Kumar are childhood friends of arrested sub lieutenant Brahma Jyoti Sharma and are from the same district of Jammu. Police said Mehra had already stayed in South Korea for years and was into manufacturing facial masks.
During the course of investigations it transpired that Ravi Kumar wanted to go to South Korea and settle and hence he had applied for a visa. However when the embassy delayed his visa, arrested lieutant Vipin Dagra went to the South Korea Embassy in Indian Navy uniform and created a ruckus to speed up his visa saying that Ravi Kumar was his brother.
“When the embassy officials told Dagra that the delay was due to the verification process, Dagra sent an threatening email from the official email address of the Indian Navy to make an impression and tried to pressurise the embassy officials” said a source.
During the course of investigations police found that the gang of four-Vipin Dagra, Sharma, his girlfriend Simran Jeji, Ravi Kumar and Deepak Mehra had allegedly send at least 10 people mostly from Jammu to South Korea based on forged documentation. Out of these 10 applicants the embassy had rejected the two application for which the gang members were very disturbed as they had to return their money.
Ranbir Singh Pura village is a vulnerable district of Jammu and Kashmir where human trafficking is normal. Early this year the Delhi police as well the Jammu crime branch busted a similar human trafficking case involving Pura village. “There are several gangs working in this village and a study surprisingly states that at least 10,000 to 14,000 people from Jammu have illegally migrated/sought asylum to South Korea. ”said an officer.
Further investigation revealed that pressuring South Korean officials to expedite visa applications was a common practice for these accused Navy officers. Police have written to the three banks seeking statements of the accused as well the statement of Toss International company floated by Simran Teji. On scrutiny of the company’s account police found Rs 47 lakhs which are the proceeds of the crime. Another bank account was in Simran’s mother’s name but Brahma Jyoti was operating it with his registered mobile number.
MUMBAI
An examination of Brahma Jyoti Sharma’s bank account showed that he had accumulated more than Rs 1 crores in the last 8 years, which was beyond his known sources of income.
Last week the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) arrested lieutenant Vipin Dagra of Indian Navy posted at Lion Gate in Mumbai for allegedly aiding and abetting human smuggling racket. During the course of investigation police on Sunday arrested three more persons namely Dagra’s boss sub lieutenant Brahma Jyoti Sharma, his friend Simran Deji, Ravi Kumar and Deepak Mehra. Police said sub lieutenant Brahma Jyoti Sharma was posted at INS Shivaji at Lonavala.
The city crime branch on Monday produced Ravi Kumar and his accomplice Deepak Mehra who were caught from their village Ranbir Singh Pura in Jammu, were produced before the 37th Metropolitan Magistrate court and were remanded to police custody.
Interestingly Deepak Mehra and Ravi Kumar are childhood friends of arrested sub lieutenant Brahma Jyoti Sharma and are from the same district of Jammu. Police said Mehra had already stayed in South Korea for years and was into manufacturing facial masks.
During the course of investigations it transpired that Ravi Kumar wanted to go to South Korea and settle and hence he had applied for a visa. However when the embassy delayed his visa, arrested lieutant Vipin Dagra went to the South Korea Embassy in Indian Navy uniform and created a ruckus to speed up his visa saying that Ravi Kumar was his brother.
“When the embassy officials told Dagra that the delay was due to the verification process, Dagra sent an threatening email from the official email address of the Indian Navy to make an impression and tried to pressurise the embassy officials” said a source.
During the course of investigations police found that the gang of four-Vipin Dagra, Sharma, his girlfriend Simran Jeji, Ravi Kumar and Deepak Mehra had allegedly send at least 10 people mostly from Jammu to South Korea based on forged documentation. Out of these 10 applicants the embassy had rejected the two application for which the gang members were very disturbed as they had to return their money.
Ranbir Singh Pura village is a vulnerable district of Jammu and Kashmir where human trafficking is normal. Early this year the Delhi police as well the Jammu crime branch busted a similar human trafficking case involving Pura village. “There are several gangs working in this village and a study surprisingly states that at least 10,000 to 14,000 people from Jammu have illegally migrated/sought asylum to South Korea. ”said an officer.
Further investigation revealed that pressuring South Korean officials to expedite visa applications was a common practice for these accused Navy officers. Police have written to the three banks seeking statements of the accused as well the statement of Toss International company floated by Simran Teji. On scrutiny of the company’s account police found Rs 47 lakhs which are the proceeds of the crime. Another bank account was in Simran’s mother’s name but Brahma Jyoti was operating it with his registered mobile number.
MUMBAI
An examination of Brahma Jyoti Sharma’s bank account showed that he had accumulated more than Rs 1 crores in the last 8 years, which was beyond his known sources of income.
