Mumbai couple held for running fake consultancy firm in Chennai

CHENNAI: Central Crime Branch (CCB) of the city police have arrested three persons from Mumbai including a couple who ran fake consultancy firms at two locations in Chennai, promising graduates jobs in Canada and other countries, cheating them of several lakhs.

The main accused, S C Hariharan (42) and his wife, Nirmala alias Malarvizhi of Navi Mumbai and their accomplice, Raju Bhai (42) of Raigad district in Maharashtra.

The trio ran two consultancy firms in Chennai-Aalfa global connect at Arcot road in Vadapalani and United India Travels in Anna Salai, through which they lured in aspirants seeking jobs in Canada, police said.

They told the aspirants that they are well connected with embassy officials and said that they could get visa, work permits and other documents and even Permanent Residency for them.

Each aspirant was charged anywhere between Rs 5 lakh to Rs 7 lakh.

Preliminary investigations have revealed that they had cheated 36 persons of more than Rs 1 crore and have issued fake visas to several of them.

After their arrest, police have secured passports of 46 aspirants and gadgets used to prepare the fake documents and Rs 3.7 lakh in cash. All three of them were produced before a magistrate and remanded to judicial custody.