Immigration probe: Lookout notices to be issued against two agents as nine US-bound Gujarat residents go missing

The suspected immigration racket came to light after a woman approached Prantij police in Sabarkantha district on Wednesday

Himmatnagar: The Gujarat police on Saturday named two immigration agents allegedly connected to nine persons going untraceable during their journey from India to the United States of America via Caribbean nations and said the process to issue look out notices against the duo was underway.

The suspected immigration racket came to light after a woman approached Prantij police in Sabarkantha district on Wednesday with a complaint that her husband, Bharat Rabari, went incommunicado in February, almost a month after he was sent to the US via the Netherlands and the Caribbean region.

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A probe led to the arrest of one Divyesh aka Johny Patel, a resident of Mehsana, and it was found that eight others sent abroad by him had gone missing.

Inspector Pradipsinh Vaghela of Prantij police station on Saturday said US-based immigration agents Dhaval Patel and Vijay Patel were to receive the persons who are untraceable, adding that the process to issue lookout notices against the two was underway.

Another agent named in the FIR lodged on the basis of the woman’s complaint is Mahendra Baldevbhai Patel, a native of Dingucha village in Gandhinagar district, he said.

Mahendra Patel, also known as ‘MD’, is the elder brother of Jagdish Patel, who along with his wife and two children froze to death while trying to illegally enter the United States from Canada last year, he said.

The four, hailing from Dingucha, had died in severe cold conditions in January 2022 when they were walking towards the US from Canada amid a blizzard, police had said at the time.

In her complaint to Prantij police station on Wednesday, Vaghpur village resident Chetna Rabari had said her husband Bharat Rabari was untraceable since February after embarking on a trip to the USA in January.

In her complaint, she said Johny Patel had promised her farmer husband a work permit in the USA for a fee of Rs 70 lakh, of which Rs 20 lakh was taken by the agent in advance while the rest was to be paid after he landed there.

Bharat Rabari reached the Netherlands in January and then landed in Dominica in February via Port of Spain in the Caribbean, but went untraceable on February 4, following which his family approached Johny Patel, who then contacted Mahendra Patel.

While Johny Patel was held on Thursday, efforts were on to nab Mahendra Patel, a resident of Ranip in Ahmedabad, police said.

A release from Sabarkantha police said Central agencies and departments concerned with such issues have also been roped in.