Hyderabad police conduct cordon and search operation for overstaying foreigners

Hyderabad, Oct 29 (IANS) Hyderabad police on Saturday conducted a cordon and search operation at Paramount Colony in Tolichowki after receiving information regarding illegal stay of several foreigners in the area.

During the search operation involving 400 police personnel, 41 invalid visa and passport holders were identified who are being questioned, said the inspector of Banjara Hills police station.

Five suspects, who made transactions related to narcotic substances, were detained.

The police also seized 29 vehicles which did not have any valid document or number, including three four-wheelers, one three-wheeler and 25 two-wheelers.

The police said that an air rifle and some materials related to 'Hukka' were also seized.

The police have not revealed the nationalities of those who were found to be staying with invalid visas and passports. Several foreigners, mostly from African countries, stay in the Paramount Colony.

The three-and-a-half-hour long cordon and search operation was conducted under the supervision of Joel Davis, Deputy Commissioner of Police, West Zone; Chakravarthi, DDCP, Hyderabad Narcotic Enforcement Wing (H-NEW); and Iqbal Siddiqui, Additional DCP, West Zone.

Meanwhile, the cyber crime police of Central Crime Station (CCS), Detective Department, Hyderabad, arrested a Nigerian national for duping a woman to the tune of Rs 18 lakh in the guise of marriage proposal. Amuluonye Prince Felix (50) was arrested from Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

The arrest was made during an investigation following a complaint from a woman, a resident of SR Nagar area in Hyderabad. The complainant had uploaded her marriage profile on a Telugu matrimonial site. A person, who introduced himself as Varun Rao, working as a civil engineer in the US, contacted her and showed interest in marrying her.

After that both exchanged their phone numbers and started chatting and calling on WhatsApp. Later, 'Varun Rao' said that he will send a gift from the US as a token of their friendship. He informed her that he is sending gold ornaments, US dollar and valuable phones in a gift parcel.

On June 1, the complainant received a call from a person claiming to be calling from the Customs department at Delhi airport. He told her that there is a gift parcel for her which contains valuable items and for claiming the same she needs pay some money laundering charges, income tax charges, anti-terrorist charges, GST etc. The woman paid an amount of Rs 18 lakh to the accused in different instalments.

During the investigation, the cyber crime police traced the accused in Greater Noida and arrested him. On interrogation, he revealed his name as Amulyans Prince Felix.

Felix came to India on a business visa in 2012 and continued to stay here even after his visa expired. He hatched a plan to indulge in online fraud with the help of his friends for which he created fake profiles on different matrimonial sites, and sent requests to innocent unmarried women using foreign numbers, introducing himself as someone living abroad.

Felix used mobile numbers starting with +44 and +1. After some time, he used to inform the victims that he was sending valuable gifts to them as a token of their friendship. After that, he extorted huge amounts under various charges from the victims.