Punjab: Office of travel agent who issued fake documents to students located

More than 700 Indian students are facing deportation from Canada due to the submission of fake documents issued by a Jalandhar-based travel agent, according to a report by PTI. Today, March 16, Jalandhar police said they have located this notorious travel agent's office.

The office is located near the city bus depot but it has remained closed for six months, the officials said. They added other details were being verified, but they are yet to receive a complaint against the agent. "We have not yet got any complaint in this regard," Jalandhar Deputy Commissioner of Police (Headquarters) Vatsala Gupta reiterated.

Nonetheless, "We are still verifying and whenever we receive any complaint, we will take action," she added. Many students from Punjab aspire to go to Canada for higher education and settle there. The affected students had gone to the North American country in 2018-19 on a study visa. But the fraud came to light recently, when they applied for permanent residency (PR) in Canada, as per PTI.

While examining their documents, the Canadian authorities found the admission offer letters issued by educational institutes to be fake and the Canadian Border Security Agency issued deportation letters to them. Several media reports mentioned the fraud travel agent had charged more than Rs 16 lakh per student for his services.