Youth In Punjab Cross Borders In Hope Of Untapped Opportunities; Visa Thugs Make Mockery Of Their Aspirations: Punjab & Haryana High Court

Visa thugs are making mockery of public aspirants and needs to be dealt sternly observed the Punjab & Haryana High Court, while rejecting a pre-arrest bail plea of a travel agent who were accused of defrauding a man by taking Rs.50 lakhs to process Visa to send his children to Canada for employment.

Justice Anoop Chitkara observed, "...youth of Punjab aim at crossing borders in hopes to find and explore untapped opportunities, that they believe are just waiting for them. This vision of finding greener pastures in an otherwise unseen land, based on the inspiring success stories of friends, relatives, and peers, many times leads to a desperate mindset that impulsively want to grab at any hands that extend to move them abroad. Deceitful visa thugs capitalize and take advantage of such optimistic hopes of ill-informed, desperately desirous people, entrapping people's trust and aspirations in the palm of their hands. extorting money under false assurances."

Adding that although complainant knew that they were paying to get visa through illegal means but later cried foul, the Court said, "the workings of such thugs need to be put to a stop, as these criminals are not only playing with the lives of the victims of such cheating out are working against the development of society and making a mockery of simple public aspirations."

These observations came in response to the pre-arrest bail plea filed by one Amit Kumar Pabbi, who was statedly running a travel agency in Punjab's Ludhiana. The petitioners were booked under Sections 406, 420, 506 & 120-B IPC and Section 24 of Immigration Act.

It was alleged that he along with his wife took Rs.50 lakhs from the complainant to send his son and daughter-in-law to Canada and later returned their passport without visa approval.

The counsel for the petitioner argued that the complainant lack evidence to prove that any such payment was actually made and the petition was filed to settle score in another civil dispute.

After hearing the submissions and considering the material on record, the Court opined that, "the concerned DySP had conducted an inquiry and found truth in the complainant's version which was corroborated by evidence and there is no reason for this Court to disbelieve such an inquiry conducted. Given this, the petitioner is not entitled to bail on this ground."

The Court also rejected the medical ground observing that, "the petitioner is not stated to be hospitalized and given the stand of the State, the petitioner is not entitled to bail on medical grounds at this stage."

It also took note of the criminal history of the petitioner involving FIRs of simillar nature and cheque bounce.

"Considering each bail petition of the accused with a criminal history throws an onerous responsibility upon the courts to act judiciously and reasonably because arbitrariness is the antithesis of law," the Court observed.

"The petitioner's criminal history also does not entitle the petitioner to anticipatory bail," it added.

Justice Chitkara highlighted that, "Today, in this wired and connected globe, when access to almost every facility and every commodity is one click away, and the world is a global village, all eyes dream of a better, brighter, and more beautiful future."

"To actualize this dream of climbing up the social ladder and securing a more comfortable and prosperous lifestyle, people and especially based on ground realities, youth of Punjab, aim at crossing borders in hopes to find and explore untapped opportunities, that they believe are just waiting for them," the judge added.

The Court noted that, "the allegations pertain to cheating on assuring visa under the garb of payment of money. Although the complainant also knew that they were paying money to get a Visa through illegal means, and undoubtedly, later on cried foul, it is just like the kettle calling the pot black, but a con cannot seek bail because of the victim's vulnerability. The sly way the petitioner conned, tricked, deceived, swindled, and defrauded the gullible complainant pointed out the dangerous trend of the revival of thugee."

While emphasising that such cases needs to be dealt sternly and that allegations are "grave and serious" the Court noted, "He (Amit Kumar Pabbi) took advantage of his previous bail orders and continued to indulge in criminal activities. In the present case there is sufficient prima facie evidence pointing towards his involvement."

Consequently, the petition was rejected.

G.B.S. Dhillon, Advocate for the petitioner.

Sukhdev Singh, AAG, Punjab.

Akshay Chadha, Advocate for the complainant.

Title: Amit Kumar Pabbi and another v. State of Punjab

2024 LiveLaw (PH) 165