Ahmedabad: The CID crime and railways arrested Rishikesh Purohit and his wife Sujata Vandhava from Kasol in Bhuntar district in Himachal Pradesh for allegedly cheating an Ahmedabad resident Hardik Patel of Rs 1.6 crore on the pretext of getting a Canadian PR visa.
Officials said that two complaints of cheating were filed against four persons for allegedly cheating four people seeking Canadian permanent resident visas out of Rs 1.6 crore — Rs 40 lakh each — by pretending to run an emigration consultancy. Ahmedabad CID crime registered one complaint and Bodakdev police the other cases. The four accused are — Rishikesh Purohit, a resident of Vadodara; Bishwadeep Dey and Prashant Dwivedi, both residents of Dehradun; and Sujata Vandhava, a resident of the Maninagar area of the city. The four are accused of cheating four persons — Hardik Patel, a resident of New Ranip; Nikunj Patel, Bhavik Patel, and Jay Patel, residents of Vastral.
The couple were on the move since July and took shelter in Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana, and finally in Himachal Pradesh, where they were arrested. They had taken the house on rent in the name a local person.
Since the accused were aware that making calls from their mobile phones could reveal their location, they did not make any call from their numbers. However, they used their numbers for online transactions. Based on the record of these messages, their location was traced, and the two were arrested.
In 2021-22, a company named ‘New Path Career Solution Pvt. Ltd’ was established by Purohit and Vandhava, both residing in Bhayli, Vadodara, and originally from Ludhiana, Punjab.
The duo also has cases registered against them at Bodakdev police station, Bapod and DCB police stations in Vadodara city, and Rajpipla police station in Narmada district. The case was investigated by inspector (detective) D V Tavdi.