New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday registered a case against six persons, including two former employees of the Visa Department of the French Embassy here on allegations of visa fraud there.

A CBI official said that accused Shubham Shokeen and Aarti Mandal, working in the mission's Visa Department, conspired with Navjot Singh, Chetan Sharma, Satwinder Singh Purewal, Manpreet Singh and others to perpetrate issue of fraudulent visas during the period January 1 to May 6, 2022.

"A few applicants from Punjab and Jammu submitted fake and forged letters purportedly written by a private company based at Bengaluru to the Consulate General of France, Bengaluru for issuing entry visas, for their joining private companies in Port-Le-Havre, France. The accused Shokeen and Mandal allegedly issued entry visas in favour of three other accused after taking illegal gratification of Rs 50,000 per visa, without the knowledge and approval of the Head of Visa Department," the official said.

After issuance of entry visas, the accused destroyed the document files concerned.

During the period of five months, several files were allegedly handled by these accused which mostly pertain to young farmers or other unemployed people from Punjab who had not earlier travelled outside the country, and the frauds perpetrated.

The CBI on Friday conducted search operations at the premises belonging to the accused in Delhi, Patiala, Gurdaspur, and Jammu.

"Incriminating documents including laptop, mobile phones, and suspicious passportA have so far been recovered," the CBI said.

Further investigation in the matter is on.