The illegal immigration scam came to light in January 2022 following the ‘Dingucha’ tragedy. Dingucha is the village’s name, about 40 kilometres from Ahmedabad and in the Gandhinagar district, to which the family belonged.Bobby himself has over two dozen passports in his name, some even containing his biometric information, said officials familiar with the case. He made minor changes and has managed to get multiple passports from different passport offices, they added.The ED had filed its case under various sections of the PMLA based on two Gujarat police FIRs against the accused under various sections of the IPC and the Passports Act for their alleged involvement in sending Indian citizens abroad illegally since 2015.The accused “were taking huge consideration for sending Indian citizens abroad illegally based on bogus or fabricated documents for getting visa of different countries with duplicate passports used as genuine by impersonating the passengers,” the ED alleged.According to the statement issued by the central agency, the accused used to collect Rs 60-75 lakh from one passenger, Rs 1-1.25 crore from every couple (husband and wife) and Rs 1.25-1.75 crore if children accompanied their parents.During the search operations, the agency officials seized about Rs 1.5 crore cash in Indian currency and around Rs 21 lakh in foreign currency. “Further, various other incriminating evidence in the form of digital and as well as documentary have been recovered and seized,” it said.The illegal routeThe Enforcement Directorate officials said the accused “were taking huge consideration for sending Indian citizens abroad illegally based on bogus or fabricated documents for getting visa of different countries with duplicate passports used as genuine by impersonating the passengers.” They used to collect Rs 60-75 lakh from one passenger, Rs 1-1.25 crore from every couple and Rs 1.25-1.75 crore if children accompanied their parents.
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