Ahmedabad: Vishnu Patel Loses Rs 35 Lakh to Canada PR Scam

(AHMEDABAD, GUJARAT, INDIA) A 34-year-old resident of Ranip, Ahmedabad, has alleged he lost Rs 35 lakh in a Canada PR scam after trusting a man who claimed to be a Canadian citizen and immigration agent. The complaint, filed with Ranip police, says Vishnu Patel, of Varah Prabhu Society in Ranip, paid in cash and cheques after being promised permanent residency visas for himself and his wife but later discovered the documents were fake and the money had been siphoned into multiple accounts.

The case has been registered as cheating under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and Ranip police have launched an investigation. The complaint names Ashwin Patel of Narmadanagar Society in Ranip, his daughter Suvarna alias Tina, his son Jigar, and a man identified as Suraj Prajapati as accused in an alleged conspiracy that used forged paperwork, staged communications, and multiple banking channels to extract money. According to the police report, one cheque was encashed into Ashwin Patel’s account, while others were deposited into the account of Surajkumar Prajapati.

Patel, who worked for 10 years at a hardware store in Dariapur, told police the fraud began in June 2023, when his mother-in-law, Lata Patel, met Ashwin Patel. The complaint states Ashwin introduced himself as a Canadian citizen and an agent who could legally arrange permanent residency visas for Indians. He allegedly told the family he could secure PR for Patel and his wife for Rs 70 lakh and would “arrange” everything required, including the IELTS language test, often used in immigration processing.

Trust formed quickly, according to the complaint. Patel first paid Rs 10 lakh in cash as an advance. He later handed over five blank cheques totaling Rs 25 lakh to Suvarna, also known as Tina, identified in the complaint as Ashwin’s daughter who collected payments in India. The complaint says the cheques were encashed over time as the family received updates and assurances about the progress of their case.

To bolster the sense that the process was moving forward, the accused allegedly sent Patel a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) letter on WhatsApp—purportedly a key document that Canadian employers use when hiring foreign workers. LMIA decisions are issued by federal authorities in Canada, and are used to show that no suitable Canadian worker is available for a job. Authentic LMIAs are tracked through official channels, as described in Government of Canada guidance on LMIA. Patel later found out the LMIA sent to him was forged, according to the police complaint, and that the cheques had already been cashed.

The complaint says the process was staged to look legitimate. There were calls, messages, and document exchanges that mimicked the steps of an immigration application, from test arrangements to supposed employer approvals. With Rs 35 lakh already paid—Rs 10 lakh in cash and Rs 25 lakh by cheque—Patel pressed for proof that an application had really been lodged. The complaint says that is when doubts hardened into alarm. The LMIA letter he had received on WhatsApp did not check out. As the family sought clarity, the people they had been dealing with stopped responding. The complaint alleges Ashwin Patel and his associates then disappeared.

What happened next brought the case to police. Patel and his family traced where the cheques had gone. According to the FIR, one cheque was deposited into an account belonging to Ashwin Patel, and the remaining cheques were encashed in the account of Surajkumar Prajapati. The complaint identifies Suvarna alias Tina as the person who collected the cheques, and names Jigar—Ashwin’s son—as part of the alleged conspiracy. Ranip police registered a case under BNS provisions for cheating and have opened an investigation into the visa fraud.

The case lands amid a surge of complaints about immigration scams in Gujarat, with Ahmedabad and Vadodara repeatedly flagged by police as hotspots for schemes tied to Canadian, U.S., and Australian visas. Police data cited in recent reports show 139 complaints of visa cheating between 2020-21 and 2022-23, involving losses of nearly Rs 74 lakh, with only about Rs 41 lakh recovered so far. The patterns share familiar features: promises of quick approvals, forged documents bearing the logos and letterhead of foreign government departments, combined with pressure to pay for “processing,” “biometrics,” or “embassy clearance,” after which the alleged agents vanish.

In this case, Patel’s complaint alleges a blend of cash payments and cheques, the involvement of family connections, and a forged LMIA used to lend an air of officialdom. The process was presented as comprehensive, with assurances that even testing requirements such as IELTS would be “arranged.” IELTS is a standardized English test widely used for immigration, employment, and study abroad; PR applicants typically must book and sit the test through authorized providers and submit their scores directly to immigration authorities or via official application portals.

The Canada PR scam described in Patel’s FIR underscores how WhatsApp and other messaging platforms are used to send documents and updates in ways that can feel routine and convincing. While digital communication is common in legitimate immigration processes, official documents like LMIAs are verifiable through government systems, and payments are not typically handled via blank cheques given to an intermediary’s family member. The complaint outlines how these details converged: a promised Canada pathway at Rs 70 lakh for the couple, an initial Rs 10 lakh in cash, followed by five blank cheques worth Rs 25 lakh handed to Suvarna alias Tina, and the subsequent discovery that the documents were fake.

Police have not disclosed whether any arrests have been made or whether funds have been frozen, but investigations into multi-accused frauds often require tracing bank transfers across several accounts and obtaining production of records orders from financial institutions. The inclusion of both an alleged Canadian-based lead figure and India-based associates mirrors other cases in which overseas claims are used to confer credibility while local operatives collect money and manage day-to-day contact. In Patel’s case, the complaint’s naming of Ashwin Patel in Narmadanagar Society links the alleged point of contact to a neighborhood in Ranip, lending specificity to what can otherwise seem like a shadowy network.

For families in neighborhoods like Varah Prabhu Society, stories of acquaintances who “made it” abroad can carry strong appeal. Patel, who had worked for a decade at a Dariapur hardware store, was not seeking a murky shortcut, his complaint suggests; he believed he was paying a premium for a guided, legal route, including test scheduling and employer approvals. When the LMIA arrived on WhatsApp, the family initially saw it as the green light they had waited for. Only later did checks show it was a forgery, and by then, as the FIR notes, one cheque had already been credited to the account of Ashwin Patel and others to the account of Surajkumar Prajapati.

The accused list—Ashwin, Suvarna alias Tina, Jigar, and Suraj Prajapati—presents investigators with distinct roles to probe: a purported overseas agent; a family member collecting cheques locally; another relative allegedly part of the plan; and a separate account holder through whom funds moved. Each role, if established, can support charges of cheating and criminal conspiracy under the BNS, and possibly draw scrutiny under financial crimes provisions if banks identify patterns consistent with laundering or structuring. Police in similar cases search phones for message histories, retrieve CCTV from handover points, and compare letterhead and signatures on suspect documents to known official templates.

The sums involved in Patel’s case, Rs 35 lakh, fit within a troubling trend in Gujarat where losses per complaint can wipe out savings, force families to sell assets, or take high-interest loans. Even when police seize some funds, recovery remains partial. The numbers cited for 2020-21 to 2022-23 show only about Rs 41 lakh recovered against nearly Rs 74 lakh reported lost, highlighting a recovery gap that leaves many complainants with little relief. For Patel, the complaint indicates his family moved quickly once the LMIA was flagged as fake, but the money had already been dispersed.

Authorities often urge prospective migrants to verify the credentials of anyone claiming to be an immigration agent, use official channels for testing and applications, and check documents like LMIAs against government sources. In Canada, the federal government publishes information on how LMIAs are issued and verified through Employment and Social Development Canada, making it possible for applicants and employers to understand what authentic documents look like and how decisions are communicated. The WhatsApp LMIA described in Patel’s FIR, by contrast, was a digital image that could not withstand scrutiny once bank transactions drew attention to the broader pattern.

As the Ranip investigation proceeds, questions will focus on who initiated contact, how the Rs 10 lakh cash handover was arranged, and the timing of each cheque encashment into the accounts of Ashwin Patel and Surajkumar Prajapati. Investigators will also examine how the family was introduced to the IELTS arrangements and whether testing appointments were ever legitimately booked. If a broader network is involved, phone records and bank statements could map connections beyond Ahmedabad, a possibility seen in other visa frauds where documents and “interviews” are staged using spoofed numbers and recycled templates.

For now, Patel’s FIR stands as a detailed account of how a promise of Canadian residency, a forged LMIA, and staged progress updates culminated in the loss of Rs 35 lakh. It names names, lists amounts, and tracks how the cheques moved—one into Ashwin’s account, the others into Surajkumar’s. It situates the alleged lead figure, Ashwin Patel, in Narmadanagar Society, and shows how his daughter Suvarna alias Tina allegedly collected the payments in India while claims of Canadian citizenship were used to anchor the pitch. In a city where police say visa fraud complaints have mounted sharply over recent years, the case adds one more detailed file to an already crowded ledger.