Five men held for trying to visit Qatar on fake visas

When their visas were cross-checked by immigration officials on the official website of Qatar government, their bluff was caught

Five men from Karnataka were recently arrested by the Sahar police for trying to travel to Qatar on alleged forged visas. The immigration officials at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport detained them. Last week, they were handed over to the local police for further probe.

The accused said they had neither the time nor money to complete the due process.(HT File Photo)

They are undergraduates and were offered flooring work by a private company in Qatar. The work contract was for a year and they had also received work visas.

However, they were required to complete another mandatory paper work, known as emigration check required (ECR). For this, they needed to obtain a clearance from the office of protector of emigrants (PoE), ministry of overseas Indian affairs.

As per the ministry of home affairs, such clearance is required for employment in countries such as United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Malaysia, Libya, Jordan, Yemen, Sudan, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Syria, Lebanon and Thailand.

The accused told police that they did not have time and money to get the approval from the POE so they got visit visas for a month and also bought mandatory return tickets. They were to have cancelled the return tickets after reaching Qatar, the police said.

However, when their visas were cross-checked by immigration officials on the official website of Qatar government, their bluff was caught. The website showed they have been issued work visas instead.

They were arrested on October 4 under charges of cheating and forgery. They were produced before a magistrate’s court and remanded in police custody. They were sent to judicial custody on Tuesday.