ED files chargesheet in illegal immigration scam

Gandhinagar: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a chargesheet in the illegal immigration scam and the central agency will now probe the hawala channels used for money transfers.

The main accused, Bharat alias Bobby Patel, who was arrested by State Monitoring Cell (SMC) in December, is alleged to have sent over 200 people to the US via Canada illegally. According to sources, Patel charged ₹85 lakhs per individual and ₹1.5 crores per family, making the scam worth approximately ₹1,000 crores.

Patel is alleged to have used hawala channels to send money to his accomplice Charanjit Singh (who is currently absconding). The ED has also discovered two bungalows in the Bhadaj area in Bobby’s name, which appear to have been purchased using proceeds from illegal immigration, added to sources.

Patel was arrested in December last year with 17 others. About 94 passports were recovered by the police from his office premises out of which 8 were fake. DeshGujarat