Moga police have booked Bhartiya Kisan Union (Totewal) state president Sukhwinder Singh alias Sukh Gill and three others on the charge of allegedly cheating a US deportee to the tune of Rs 45 lakh on the promise of legal entry into America. The accused are Gill’s mother Pritam Kaur, relative Talwinder Singh, and Gurpreet Singh. The complaint has been filed at Dharamkot police station under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Emigration Act.
Jaswinder Singh, a Pandori Arian village in Moga Class 10 pass-out, was one of the second group of deportees to arrive at Amritsar airport on February 15. In his complaint, he claimed Gill, who operates a travel agency named Fateh Immigration at Dharamkot, assured to send him legally to the US by a flight and obtained for him a three-year work permit. Persuaded by Gill’s assurances, Jaswinder raised Rs 45 lakh by selling his family land, mortgaging his house, and disposing of his buffaloes.
As per the FIR, Jaswinder gave Rs 30 lakh in cash to Gill in front of his mother Pritam Kaur and Talwinder Singh. Subsequently, in November 2024, Gill took him to an office in Chandigarh’s Elante Mall, pretending it to be the office of the US embassy. There, Jaswinder was reportedly made to provide some documents and pay Rs 14,000 as processing charges.
A few days hence, Gill told Jaswinder that his US visa has arrived and has reserved his air ticket from Delhi on December 12, 2024. But upon arriving in Prague, Czech Republic, Jaswinder found that he had been provided with a Schengen visa, not a US visa. As per his complaint, he was held hostage in a hotel in Prague until December 30 by the aides of Gill, who asked for more money and made him communicate with Gill through WhatsApp calls. Jaswinder’s family paid Rs 4 lakh to an account associated with Gurpreet Singh’s M/S Ekam Travels in exchange for his release. Two other payments of Rs 2 lakh each followed.
After the receipt of the money, Jaswinder was posted to Spain and then El Salvador. There, he claimed, he was taken to a hotel by ‘donkers’—agents involved in illegal immigration—who already had his photograph and knew Gill. Jaswinder claimed that the ‘donkers’ assaulted him as well as robbed him of $2,725.
According to the FIR, Jaswinder was eventually pushed through the notorious ‘dunki’ route via Panama, where he traveled through boats, taxis, and buses before reaching the US-Mexico border on January 27. Upon illegally crossing into the US, he was arrested by authorities and subsequently deported on February 13.
Inspector Jatinder Singh, Station House Officer of Dharamkot police station, validated that a case has been filed and an investigation is in process based on the complaint of the victim. Meanwhile, Gill’s phone is still switched off, and he hasn’t returned calls for comment.