Fake visa racket claims 2 lives

Guntur: Another white-collar crime claimed two innocent lives and put nine students behind bars. Duped by a fake Hyderabad educational consultancy, Inturi Sirisha(28) and her father Vajja Suryanarayana (60) ended their lives by hanging from the ceiling fan at Navabharat Nagar in the town on Monday.

According to reports, Sirisha, who studied in Australia got acquainted with a consultancy based in Hyderabad and in the process, started working for them as a freelance liaison officer. Recently, she convinced nine aspirants to go abroad for higher studies and to them enrolled in an Italian University. She told them that immediate placement would be offered to them in that country after completing their graduation.

Also, Rs 3 lakhs were collected from each of the nine students as processing fee and they were given visas to travel to Italy. But all those visas were proven to be bogus by the New Delhi Airport Police after they boarded the flight and were taken into custody. The parents of the students questioned Sirisha as to why she cheated them. But she urged them to wait patiently and assured them that everything would be alright.

Later, she went to her father’s home nearby and poured out her woes. She explained to him her innocence in a suicide note and committed suicide along with her heartbroken father.

On receiving information, Old Guntur police personnel rushed to the spot and after recovering the suicide note, sent the bodies for post-mortem to Guntur General Hospital. Old Guntur Circle Inspector Balamuralikrishna said that this might be the first ever deception case which involved fake visas. Old Guntur police took up investigation.