Date:24/05/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/05/24/stories/2006052422270300.htm

New Delhi

Man extorted money from visa applicant

Devesh K. Pandey

NEW DELHI: A man claiming to be an employee of the U.S. Embassy here at Chanakyapuri is alleged to have extorted Rs. 4 lakhs from a family that had applied for visas.

According to sources, Gurmeet Singh, a resident of Ludhiana in Punjab, lodged a complaint with the police on May 19. Mr. Singh said his brother -- a Green Card holder in the U.S. -- had applied for permanent visas for his son Talwinder Singh and daughter Arshdeep Kaur. While Arshdeep's application was cleared in May 2005, Talwinder's application was withheld due to some objections. "In July/August 2005, someone called up my residence and verified if it was Talwinder's house," said Mr. Singh in the complaint.

Monetary favours

When he replied in the affirmative, the caller offered to get Talwinder's visa application cleared against monetary favours. Mr. Singh told him that all documents submitted with the application were authentic, at which the caller threatened to cancel Talwinder's application. The caller insisted that Mr. Singh pay for the visa and warned that if cancelled it would never be cleared in future.

Mr. Singh agreed to pay Rs. 4 lakhs to the caller. He asked for some time to arrange the money and gave the caller his mobile number. Mr. Singh could arrange only Rs. 1.5 lakhs. He was, however, asked to pay Rs. 2 lakhs in the lobby of a five-star hotel at Chanakyapuri on August 16 last. A person contacted him at the hotel, addressing him by his name, and took away Rs. 1.5 lakhs.

Later the person again contacted Mr. Singh and asked him to pay Rs. 50,000 more, which was paid near the hotel's gate.

Threatened

A few days later, the person asked him to pay the remaining Rs. 2 lakhs, or else the visa would get cancelled and the money given earlier would also not be returned.

On November 20, the complainant paid the rest of the money to the person near Karnal by-pass. Interestingly, a month later, the visa was sent to Mr. Singh's residence by post. He then lodged a complaint with the police and also with the Embassy officials after which an extortion case was registered at Chanakyapuri police station.

When contacted, a U.S. Embassy spokesperson said on Tuesday: "The case is under investigation by the Indian authorities. We are cooperating with them. The allegations of malfeasance and fraud would be investigated thoroughly."