A man from Haryana, who was one of the 104 people deported from the US for entering the country illegally, told the local police that the travel charged Rs 50 lakh to send him abroad but the patrolling police there arrested him within five minutes after entering the USA on 25th January this year.
The Haryana police lodged an FIR on the complaint of the deported youth on Saturday. Akshay a resident of Kharar village (Hisar), filed a complaint against three travel agents: Deepak Malik, a resident of Shamlo village (Jind), Rajat Mor, a resident of Jind, and Munish Sharma, a resident of Petwar village (Jind).
Akshay told the police that he spoke to the travel agents in June 2024 to go to the US on a work visa. “The agents told me that they would charge Rs 35 lakh to send him to the USA legally by air. They said that first I would be sent to Dubai and then to America through a flight directly on a work visa. They sent me to Dubai on July 18, 2024, legally and kept me there for one month. On August 23, 2024, they sought Rs 30 lakh to send me to America from Dubai after five days. Next day, my family gave them Rs 30 lakh.”
However, the Haryana man was kept in Suriname for the next 20 days. In his police complaint, he said: “When my family questioned the travel agents for keeping me in Suriname, they replied that I would be sent to America in the next one or two days. Then, my illegal travel on a bus was arranged for America but the agents kept telling my family that I was being taken to the US via a flight. They also sought Rs 20 lakh more from my family which they arranged from an arhtiya (commission agent at a market) on November 28, 2024 and gave the money to them.”
Akshay informed the police that the mafia group initially transporting him to the US handed him over to another mafia for the next leg of his journey. “They got me to enter the US from Mexico on January 25 this year, but I was caught by the American border patrol within five minutes. They took me to a detention center, and I was deported on February 3,” he said.
The complainant has requested the police to arrest the travel agents involved and recover his Rs 50 lakh. In response, the police have filed an FIR at a Hisar police station, charging the agents with cheating, criminal breach of trust, and violations under the Emigration Act.
A police spokesperson confirmed to The Indian Express that the investigation is ongoing.