Agent is also being accused of taking tens of thousands of dollars from his clients
Indian police have arrested a travel agent who is accused of forging the student visa documents of dozens of foreign students who are now facing orders to leave Canada because they lied on their applications.
A spokesperson for the Jalandhar, Punjab, Police Commissionerate confirmed withThe Fifth EstateRahul Bhargava of the company Education and Migration Services was arrested, and his partners, Brijesh Mishra and Gurnam Singh, are still being looked for. India’s criminal, penal, and administrative codes all have more than one charge against them.
The Fifth EstateGot three First Information Reports (FIRs) from the Police Commissionerate. These were made after the parents of the students made several complaints.
Baldev Raj, one of the parents from Nakodar, Jalandhar, said The Fifth EstateThat Brijesh Mishra, the agent, made a fake acceptance letter from Sheridan College without their knowledge. He also stole $14,000 from him, which was supposed to pay for his daughter’s tuition for two semesters at the Ontario college.
He said that Mishra told his daughter not to go to Sheridan until further notice when she got to Canada. They waited for Mishra to answer for two weeks, but he never did. When they tried to call him, he never picked up.
With the help of a friend in Canada, Raj asked about his daughter’s registration at Sheridan College in Brampton, Ont. He found out that his daughter had never been registered there. He found out later that Mishra had kept the whole amount and never paid the college.
“Mishra defrauded me and my daughter,” Raj said. “Not only did he cheat us out of money, but he also ruined my daughter’s future.”
Raj said that his daughter later went to Cambrian at Hanson, a school in Toronto that is connected to Cambrian College. He paid another $14,000 for her tuition, but the agent never gave him back the money for Sheridan College.
The Canada Border Services Agency has given his daughter a removal order because she used a fake letter of acceptance when she first applied for a student visa.
“We are victims, not the bad guys.
Mishra has been accused of tricking a large number of international students, who now face orders to leave Canada.
The students held signs that said “Stop Victim Blaming,” “We are Victims of Fraud,” “We are Victims, not Culprits,” “Unite Against Deportation,” and “Wake Up Canadian Government” outside the Immigration and Refugee Board in Toronto on Thursday. They were fighting to stay in Canada.
Ranbir Singh, a student from Gurdaspur, Punjab, said that he was one of the protesting students.The Fifth EstateMishra also stole $14,000 from him, which was supposed to pay for his first year of college at Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology in Ottawa.
Singh said that when he got to Canada in September 2018, Mishra told him that the college was full for the semester and he would not be able to go there to study.
He said he went to Algonquin himself to find out if he was accepted, but the college couldn’t confirm his registration.
Singh said he also showed his letter of acceptance to a staff member at the front desk, but at the time, they couldn’t tell it was a fake and told him to talk to his agent.
“I asked questions and argued, but they didn’t tell me about the fake document. Instead, they told me to go back to the same person who did this,” he said.
Singh then went to Mohawk College of Applied Arts and Technology in Hamilton and paid another $14,000 for the first year of his education. But he said the agent didn’t give him back the money he paid to Algonquin College, and Mishra stopped picking up the phone when he called.
On March 21, the deputy commissioner of Jalandhar, Punjab, took away the license for Mishra’s company, Education and Migration Services, because he thought it was doing illegal things.
The case is being looked into right now by the Jalandhar Police Commissionerate’s Anti-Human Trafficking Unit.
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) confirmed that there are a number of active Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) investigations into cases of misrepresentation, including those related to study permits.
“People who lie about who they are or use fake documents to try to get into or stay in Canada are breaking IRPA and could be kicked out of the country,” the CBSA said in a statement.
“The CBSA is in charge of looking into alleged violations of the Customs Act and the IRPA. They focus on complex cases involving organized fraud or a history of not following the law, and they mainly go after the people who plan, help, or commit crimes that threaten the integrity of Canada’s border laws.”