Jalandhar (TIP)- Brijesh Mishra, an Indian immigration agent accused of involvement in a scandal related to fake Canadian college admission letters, has been apprehended in Canada and is currently facing criminal charges.
Mishra, who operates an immigration agency called EMSA in Jalandhar, went missing just before the scandal came to light. This situation has put hundreds of students from Punjab and other Indian states at risk of deportation due to the fraudulent college admission letter scam.
The Canada Border Services Agency took action against Mishra on Friday, June 23, charging him with offering immigration advice without a licence and counselling others to misrepresent or withhold information from authorities. Mishra’s inadmissibility to Canada was discovered when he attempted to enter the country, leading to his arrest. After being held in custody, charges were officially filed against him on Friday for his alleged role in issuing fraudulent letters of acceptance to prospective Indian students seeking admission to Canadian institutions.
Notably, Brijesh Mishra is currently in pre-trial detention in British Columbia. According to a source, since he has been criminally charged, his custody has been transferred from the Canada Border Services Agency to law enforcement in British Columbia. “A bail hearing for Mishra is scheduled for tonight, although there is a possibility of an adjournment, in which case, the bail hearing would take place on Monday”, he informed.
These developments follow the recent announcement by Immigration Minister Sean Fraser, who pledged to halt the pending deportations of international Indian students who claim to have been deceived by Mishra and other unscrupulous agents.
Meanwhile, a group of affected students, numbering in hundreds, had recently written a letter addressed to the Chief Minister of Punjab, urging swift action to address the issue. They emphasised the importance of identifying the immigration agents and agencies involved in these fraudulent activities.
The affected students allege that they were deceived by Mishra and other unscrupulous agents, including Maan Singh Gill of Global Education in Amritsar, Jasmeet Kaur and Atul Mahajan of Orange Overseas in Mohali, Tarun Kalia of Dream Glow Education in Sahibabad (UP), and Gurbaj Gill of Fly Overseas, whose whereabouts are not known to anyone.
They said their admission letters were tampered with, and they only discovered the issue when flagged by border officials during their postgraduate work permit or permanent residence application processes.
Reacting to Mishra’s arrest, Inderjit Aulakh, a student, said, the most wanted individual in the case has been arrested, and “we hope he exposes the possible nexus on how he defrauded thousands”.
Source: TNS