Former kabaddi player arrested for smuggling people abroad with fake documents

NEW DELHI: A PTI teacher at a government school in Punjab was arrested for sending people abroad using fake documents. He was also a former national-level kabaddi and handball player at the school level.
The accused has been identified as Mandeep Singh (42), a resident of Kapurthala, Punjab.
Maninder Pal Singh, 20, was deported from the US on December 14, 2024, due to tampered documents. A case was registered, and investigations revealed that Singh had come into contact with an agent, Mandeep Singh, who facilitated his illegal entry into the USA for Rs 41 lakhs. Singh was instructed to remove pages from his passport containing fake visas and stamps, but he was eventually caught by US authorities.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGIA), Usha Rangnani, said that based on this information, Singh was finally apprehended in Moga, Punjab, after being chased for 150 km from Sultanpur Lodhi.
Mandeep, a graduate and former national-level kabaddi and handball player, revealed that his siblings reside in the US and the UK. He claimed that while arranging their travel, he encountered agents who duped people with false promises of overseas jobs and travel.
Subsequently, he started working with them to earn quick money and improve his livelihood. After some time, he opened an IELTS centre in Kapurthala, Punjab, under the name of UAIC and began working as an agent. The accused further revealed that he was later appointed as a PTI teacher at a government school in Punjab, but he continued to work as an agent alongside his job to earn easy and quick money.
"Maninder Pal Singh approached the agent to arrange his journey to the US, and the agent assured him of arranging the trip through illegal means in exchange for Rs 41 lakhs via various countries. As per their deal, the agent arranged Singh's journey through Kazakhstan, Dubai, Senegal, and further illegal travel through Libya, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico. The accused agent revealed that he and his associates also facilitated Singh's illegal entry into the US via Mexico by crossing the border," the police said.
At that time, the agent arranged for a fake Guatemalan visa and immigration stamps from various countries to be placed on the pages of Singh's passport to conceal his illegal journey. However, on the agent's instructions, Singh later removed some pages from his passport containing the fake visas and stamps, thereby tampering with his passport. As a result, Singh was caught by US authorities due to his tampered passport and deported back to India.