Chennai: The Q branch of the Tamil Nadu police busted on Wednesday, a fake passport racket run by a Sri Lankan gang which had been ‘issuing’ fake Indian passports and fake visas to Lankan refugees after collecting huge amounts and helping them to go to Europe and Canada via Nepal. Police arrested four Lankans from Chennai. Police sources said that a Q team arrested persons identified as R. Balachandran alias Balan, 48, a native of Jaffna in Sri Lanka, P. Lingaran alias Athiyaman, 40, from Jafna, G. Jayadasan, 43, and G. Dhanushan, 22, of Mullatheevu in Sri Lanka.

Balachandran was picked up from Ambattur adn the other three from Maduravoyil on Tuesday night. Police are on the lookout for the other persons involved in the racket. Police also seized 10 fake passports readied by the group for two families and Rs 1.5 lakh from the arrested.“Till recently, Lankan refugees lodged in various camps in the state were lured by agents to cross the Indian Ocean to reach Australia in illegal ferries despite Tamil Nadu police regular crackdown on such groups in the last few years. It looks as if the Lankan agents decided to stop the sea route and found an ‘alternate way’ by air to take the refugees to foreign countries,” a police officer said.

“The gang was luring refugee families. They prepare fake passports and fake visas of the country the refugees want to go to. Later the families are taken to places like Nepal and Bangladesh from where they are flown to European countries like France or Canada,” an officer noted. The racket charges several lakhs of rupees from families. Their charge includes processing of travel documents including passport and visas and also air ticket. Though the gang members reportedly claimed that they started the operation very recently, Q investigators believe that the racket could have already sent many illegally out of the country.
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