City hotelier faked papers for visas: Cops

Chennai
: The police have arrested the managing director (overseas) of the Chennai-based Saravana Bhavan chain of hotels for faking documents in a
bid to get US tourist visas for four of his employees.

The four men, he had claimed, were production executives proceeding to Chicago for an international industrial fair on packaging and processing. But US immigration officials found that they were supervisors employed in his restaurants at Chennai and UAE to help customers. The hotelier, who owns more than a dozen outlets in several countries including the US, UK, Canada and Singapore, is now under suspicion for human trafficking, said officials.

The police have registered a case under IPC sections 417 (punishment for cheating), 420 (cheating), 465 (punishment for forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (submitting forged documents) against P R Sivakumar.

Sivakumar (35), a resident of K K Nagar, had sought visas for Subramanian Arumugam of Chennai, Sekar Kannayiram of Mundinkkarai, Ramu Murugaian of Thirukalar and Asaithambi Gurusamy of Theni, saying they needed to attend the Process Expo and Pack Expo in Chicago later this month. While Ramu was with the group’s hotel in Mylapore, the other three were employed in the UAE branch. According to police sources, Sivakumar claimed that the four were being taken abroad to help him purchase advanced packaging equipment.

Last Monday, the four met US Consulate officials for an interview. “During verification, Consulate officials found that the four employees had very little knowledge about catering machinery and that Sivakumar had falsely prepared documents and given them false designations only to get them into the US. Anthony K Ramirez, assistant regional security officer at the Consulate, lodged a complaint with the CB-CID seeking action,” a senior police officer said.

In his complaint, Ramirez said he suspected that Sivakumar had devised a plan to get them jobs in the US after getting them tourist visas and that he had devised a cover — delegates visiting an expo in Chicago — to clear the way. He said he suspected that Sivakumar was involved in human trafficking.

The police picked up Sivakumar from his residence on Saturday. After he confessed to having committed the offence, the police arrested him. The police also arrested Ramu, one of the four employees.

“We are making further enquiries to see whether Sivakumar was involved in other similar cheating incidents,” the officer added. Sivakumar was remanded in judicial custody after being produced before a magistrate in Egmore.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com