Visa, passport fraud in India: Delhi Police arrest 130-plus agents in 2025

Police froze over 100 bank accounts, issued 140 lookout circulars and tracked assets linked to illegal overseas travel

The Delhi Police arrested more than 130 people in 2025, including travel agents and facilitators, as part of a widening crackdown on visa and passport fraud.

 

Many of the arrests were made from different parts of the country, targeting organised networks accused of forging travel documents, cheating passengers and enabling illegal overseas travel.

 

Following the money trail

 

In a first-of-its-kind step, the IGI Airport unit of the Delhi Police also began financial investigations into the accused agents, focusing on tracing proceeds of crime. These probes led to the freezing of more than 100 bank accounts that showed suspicious transactions.

 

 

“Investigating officers were specifically directed to examine the financial aspects of the frauds and establish the money trail,” Delhi Police officers said in a press release on Friday. They added that while a large share of payments in such cases was made in cash, investigators were still able to identify important financial links.

 

Police said assets believed to have been purchased using proceeds from criminal activity are now being tracked. In one case, an application has already been moved before a competent court seeking attachment of property belonging to an accused agent. Similar steps are being taken against other agents where evidence allows, officials said. 

 

Lookout circulars and long-pending cases

 

As part of efforts to prevent suspects from fleeing the country, police issued 140 lookout circulars in 2025. Several accused attempting to travel abroad were intercepted at airports as a result, officials said.

 

The drive also led to the arrest of 119 proclaimed offenders, including individuals wanted in cases that were more than a decade old. 

 

What Indian law says about overseas recruiters

 

Under Indian law, only agents registered with the Ministry of External Affairs under the Emigration Act, 1983 are allowed to offer overseas employment services.

 

“Running unlicensed immigration operations can attract charges of cheating under Section 316 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and, in serious cases, human trafficking provisions under Sections 359 and 360,” Deepika Kumari, partner at King Stubb & Kasiva, Advocates and Attorneys, told Business Standard.