A Gurdaspur family’s hope of settling abroad has ended in a police complaint instead, after a Himachal Pradesh man allegedly took ₹7 lakh in advance for New Zealand visas he never delivered. Punjab Police have registered a cheating case against Lavish Mahajan, adding to what has become one of the state’s most persistent categories of fraud: the promise of a foreign visa that never materialises.
The complaint was filed by Anish, a Gurdaspur resident, who alleged that Mahajan approached his sister’s family with an offer to arrange complete relocation to New Zealand, visas included, within three months. The family, exploring overseas opportunities for what they hoped would be a better future, agreed to a total package priced at ₹25 lakh and paid ₹7 lakh upfront.
A Familiar Promise, A Familiar Pattern
According to the complaint, Mahajan positioned himself as capable of single-handedly managing the entire immigration process, gaining the family’s confidence through repeated assurances that paperwork was progressing on schedule. When the promised three-month window passed without any visas, travel arrangements or documentation, the family’s requests for updates were allegedly met with delays and excuses rather than answers or a refund.
Police say a preliminary inquiry found sufficient grounds to register the case, and investigators are now examining bank records, payment documents and communications to establish the full sequence of events. A central question under scrutiny is whether Mahajan held any legitimate immigration credentials at all, or had simply presented himself as one to secure the family’s trust and their money.
Punjab’s Recurring Vulnerability
The case fits a pattern that has repeated across Punjab for years, driven by the state’s outsized aspiration for overseas migration, particularly among families in NRI-heavy districts such as Gurdaspur, Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur. Unregulated or loosely licensed immigration consultants have periodically been booked for similar promises involving Canada, the United Kingdom and Singapore, with individual losses in past cases ranging from a few lakh rupees to sums that ran into tens of lakhs per family.
What makes these cases difficult to stamp out is the informality of the industry itself. Many operators function as local, trusted intermediaries rather than registered consultancies, often building credibility through word of mouth within a village or extended family network, precisely the kind of trust that made the Gurdaspur family comfortable transferring a substantial advance without formal verification.
The Due-Diligence Gap
Investigators say they are also checking whether Mahajan faces similar complaints elsewhere, a routine step given how often immigration fraud cases in Punjab turn out to involve multiple victims once one complaint becomes public. Efforts to trace and arrest him are underway.
Prof. Triveni Singh, the cybercrime expert and former IPS officer, said immigration fraud thrives on exploiting the genuine aspirations of families seeking better opportunities abroad, with fraudsters routinely persuading victims to make large advance payments well before any actual work begins. He advised prospective applicants to verify a consultant’s licensing and credentials through official government channels before transferring any money, insist on formal documentation at every stage, retain all payment records, and independently confirm visa status directly with the destination country’s immigration authority rather than relying solely on an agent’s word. Basic verification, he said, remains the most effective safeguard against losses that, once advance payments are made, are often difficult to recover through legal channels alone.
