'French visa fraud accused left India before FIR registration'

New Delhi, March 15 (IANS) A former employee of the French Embassy here, who was allegedly involved in a visa fraud case, had escaped from India before the registration of the FIR, sources in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said on Wednesday.

Accused Shubham Shokeen allegedly issued visas to a number of people, including his parents, on the basis of forged documents.

The French Embassy wrote to the CBI in this respect after which an FIR was filed against Shokeen and his aide Aarti Mandal.

"Shokeen allegedly took Rs 50,000 from each person to which he issued visa on the basis of fake documents whereas the French Embassy didn't approve any case in actual," sources said, adding that the visas were issued between January 1, 2022 and May 6, 2022 by the accused.

He was looking after the visa matter of 324 people at that time.

The CBI after lodging the case conducted raids at his places and recovered his and his parents' - Samunder Singh and Anita Shokeen - passports. On passports of his parents, 'ETATS SCHENGEN' was pasted which allows a person to travel 27 European countries.

The French Embassy had told the CBI that the sticker pasted on their passport was genuine but the signature of their official was forged. It said that his parents didn't appear for the interview before granting of visa.

Around 64 files belonging to different people, specially from Punjab, were found missing from French Embassy office.

It has been alleged that the accused was behind the destruction of these files.