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“Fake Passport Scheme Suspected (Punjabi Members Duped)”
JSOnline ^ | March 23, 2008 | Georgia Pabst
Posted on 03/24/2008 6:12:20 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “A Milwaukee businessman has complained to the Indian Embassy in Washington, D.C., about what he claims is a passport-selling scheme involving individuals at the Indian consulate in Chicago.

Amrit N. Patel, who owns a local accounting firm and is president of the India Cultural Society, outlined the suspected scheme in a letter to Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen last March.

Milwaukee has a large Punjabi community, many members of which have come here with political asylum, which does not make them eligible for an Indian passport, he said in the letter.

But over the last two years, Patel said, the Chicago consulate has issued Indian passports to them through a mediator in New York, whom he identified as Rajubhaiya or Raju.

Patel listed the names of six people who, he said, had paid from $3,000 to $3,500 to get a passport. He also included copies of permanent resident cards, immigration forms and approved asylum applications.

He described the suspected scheme this way:”