The Mohali police have booked three owners of an immigration firm for duping several people of ₹12.45-lakh after promising them jobs abroad.

The FIR was lodged against Rohit, Tarsem and Kulwinder Singh, who run an immigration firm “The Travel Visa Group” in Phase-5.

Complainant Harsh Kumar, 26, of Dera Bassi, said that he and several others had paid the accused after they promised to get them jobs in Azerbaijan. Harsh works as a driver for a food delivery aggregator.

“We got our visas and they asked us to collect tickets on the day of our flight, September 25, 2023. When we did not receive our tickets, over 20 victims reached the accused’s office, but could not find anyone. People working as security guards, peons or electricians were duped,” Kumar alleged, and added that the accused had duped people of around ₹40 lakh, but many were yet to lodge complaints.

The visas provided by the accused also turned out to be fake. The absconding accused were booked on Friday after a probe was marked to the anti-human trafficking unit of the Mohali police.

A case under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 24 of the Immigration Act was registered at the Phase-1 police station.