Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (NR)
 
Mangalore, Jan 29: Visa rackets seem to be mushrooming in the city very much in tune with the rising affluence here. Cases of visa fraud continues unabated in coastal Karnataka, as wily fraudsters seem well aware of the fact that they can escape conviction, due to certain lacunae in our legal system.
 
A case has come to light whereby more than seven persons from the region have been duped of their hard earned money, to the tune of Rs 12 lac which they had paid to an agent with a view to getting well-paying jobs in Kuwait. However, this attempt of fraud was partially thwarted by the timely intervention of a Mangalorean Good Samaritan and social worker based in Kuwait P B Pinto, who helped six of them to reach home safely after rescuing them from the legal wrangles in Kuwait.  

This information was furnished at a press meet held here on Monday January 28. According to Pinto the seven job aspirants had paid around Rs 1,65,000 each to an agent who then arranged a visit visa for them and accordingly after due formalities they reached Kuwait in October 2007. However much to their chagrin they were not provided a job by the agent as promised earlier by the latter, even as their visit visa lapsed on December 1, 2007.

 Further Pinto informed that they were however, released from legal proceedings with the aid of the Indian embassy in Kuwait.  The names of the victims who lost their money were Peter Alwyn Fernandes, Urban D'Souza, Pascal Roque D'Souza, Ashok Gopu Poojary, Valerian Rodrigues, Pradeep Alake and Sandeep Ganiga.

They all went through a harrowing ordeal there as without any documents they had to stay in a small room at Abuhalifa in Kuwait and were later deported back to India but thankfully without being penalized by the courts there.  Four of them had again gone there in full faith, trusting the agent’s promise of a job on arrival. However, none of them were provided with either a job or food or lodging. It was later only due to the timely intervention of Pinto that arrangements were made for three of them to return back to their home towns safely.