Surat: Three men and a woman were allegedly cheated out of Rs 15 lakh by a visa consultancy in the Sarthana area of the city, whose owners had promised them Singapore visas and well-paid jobs. Sarthana police have arrested the firm’s two owners for cheating and conspiracy.
A 32-year-old Katargam resident, Nancy Kadam, filed a complaint with Sarthana police in this regard on Monday. Kadam stated that as she wanted to work abroad, an acquaintance of hers, Vijay Kadwani, recommended the services of Sarthana-based Sky Way International, run by Viral Limbani and Rutvik Ribadiya.
In Nov 2023, Kadam and her husband, Jenish, met the firm owners. They assured her that within three months she would get a visa and a packaging job at a warehouse in Singapore that would pay $3,500 a month, for which she would have to pay the firm Rs 7.5 lakh.
Kadam agreed and gave the firm her documents and transferred the first tranche of Rs 50,000 to Ribadiya’s bank account on Nov 6. She transferred Rs 3 lakh on Dec 8 and Rs 1 lakh on Dec 11. After paying Rs 4.5 lakhs, Kadam asked the firm owners to show her the progress on her visa application, but they kept asking for more money, telling Kadam that her visa process was underway.
Kadam later tried to meet the accused at their office, but it was closed. A few days later, they met Kadam in Varachha and told her that the firm they had outsourced her visa work to had cheated them. They promised to return Kadam’s money by June 2024 and gave her a cheque as security. However, the two did not return her money and their cheque also bounced.
Kadam later learned that the accused had also cheated Jigar Rana, Dhaval Mehta and Vikas Singh using the promise of Singapore visas, out of Rs 4.50 lakh, Rs 3 lakh and Rs 3 lakh respectively. Inspector M B Zala of Sarthana police said: “We have arrested Ribadiya and Limbani and are investigating how many people they have cheated in this manner.”
