New Delhi, Jan 17 (PTI) The Delhi Police Tuesday said it has arrested two persons, one of whom had contested the 2020 Bihar polls as an Independent, from the state's Madhubani district for allegedly duping more than 500 people by promising to facilitate visa interviews.

A Delhi Police spokesperson said Dinesh Kumar Yadav (39) and Praveen Kumar (38) belong to Madhubani and they were arrested on January 13.

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He said Yadav had contested the November 2020 legislative assembly election as an Independent from the Harlakhi constituency and presently, he is the state secretary of the Jan Adhikar Party, led by Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav.

According to police, the duo used to dupe people by advertising their numbers on Facebook as visa interview facilitators.

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When they received calls from prospective applicants they would ask them to pay money in their bank accounts for formalities. Once the payment was received, they would delete the existing Facebook account, the police said.

They would create a new account in two months and target new people, the police said.

They said the matter came to light after Mohd Asker, a resident of Paharganj, reported that his Poland-based friend Sheeju requested him for manpower supply there and asked him to arrange candidates for him from India. He arranged 30 candidates for him.

During the exercise, Asker came across a Facebook page purporting to be of onr 'Arayan Travels' that claimed to provide an approved agent for arranging appointments with VFS which is the world's largest visa outsourcing and technology services specialist for government and diplomatic missions worldwide, police said.

"When the complainant called over the given mobile number, one of the accused informed that he was a representative of the VFS and can arrange appointments at a nominal charge of Rs 35,000 per candidate," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Shweta Chauhan said.

She said that because the complainant had to arrange appointments for a large numbers of people the fee was negotiated down to Rs 30,000 per candidate.

"The complainant gave the details of 76 persons to him and the amount of Rs 17,60,500 was transferred to the bank accounts provided by the accused. After two-three days, the accused sent the appointments through a mail ID.

"When the candidates went to the concerned office, it was found the appointment letters were fake and when he tried to contact over the given number, the same was found switched off," she said.

During investigation, it was revealed that most of the alleged bank accounts were opened in Madhubani, Bihar. CCTV footage of ATMs have also been obtained.

The accused used to transfer money from one bank account to other, she added.

"A team was sent to Madubani, Bihar in search of the accused and on January 13, accused Dinesh Kumar Yadav and Praveen Kumar were apprehended from Jainagar in Madubani," the officer said.

Their interrogation revealed the accused had purchased land from the money thus made and opened a shop to store building material, the DCP said.

More than 20 bank accounts were used for the movement of the ill-gotten money and Rs 2.5 lakh have been freezed in various bank accounts, he said.

Police said they have recovered Rs 1 lakh in cash, six mobile phones and as many SIM cards, a laptop used in the commission of crime along with 16 debit cards of various banks in various names.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)