Avneet Kaur
Jalandhar, 24 June
Brijesh Mishra, an Indian immigration agent accused of being involved in a scandal involving fake Canadian university acceptance letters, has been arrested in Canada and is currently facing criminal charges.
Mishra, who runs an immigration agency called EMSA in Jalandhar, disappeared 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 a fraudulent college admission scam letter.
The Canada Border Services Agency took action against Mishra on Friday, accusing him of providing immigration advice without a permit and advising others to misrepresent or withhold information from authorities.
Mishra’s inadmissibility to Canada was discovered when he attempted to enter the country, which led to his arrest. After his detention, formal charges were filed against him on Friday for his alleged role in issuing fraudulent acceptance letters to prospective Indian students seeking admission to Canadian institutions.
Brijesh Mishra is currently in pre-trial detention in British Columbia. According to a source, since he was charged with a criminal offense, his custody has been transferred from the Canada Border Services Agency to British Columbia law enforcement. “Mishra’s bail hearing is scheduled for tonight, although it may be postponed, in which case, the bail hearing will take place on Monday,” he said.
These developments follow the recent announcement by Immigration Minister Sean Fraser, who has vowed to halt pending deportations of international Indian students who claim they have been duped by Mishra and other unscrupulous agents.
Meanwhile, a group of affected students, numbering in the hundreds, recently wrote a letter addressed to the Chief Minister of Punjab, urging them to take swift action to address this problem. They stressed the importance of identifying the migration agents and agencies involved in these fraudulent activities.
The affected students claim they were duped by Mishra and other unscrupulous customers.
They said their acceptance letters had been tampered with, and that they only discovered the problem when border officials reported them during the post-graduation work permit or permanent residence application process.
Responding to Mishra’s arrest, the most wanted man in the case has been arrested, Indirjit Ulakh, the student, “hopefully reveals the possible connection on how he defrauded thousands,” he said.
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