New Delhi: A senior employee of the Union home ministry has been arrested by Rajasthan police on the charge of demanding and accepting a bribe from Pakistani Hindu migrants, bringing the department's foreigners' division under the scanner over allegations of a visa "extortion" racket.
The ministry on Monday ordered an internal probe after P.K. Mishra, a secretariat assistant in the division in Delhi, was caught red-handed by Rajasthan's anti-corruption bureau last week.
"A preliminary probe has revealed that Mishra had been running this racket for three years with the help of some employees of Rajasthan's home department. An internal inquiry has been ordered to ascertain whether other officials of the foreigners' division in the capital were involved," said an IPS officer at North Block, the seat of the home ministry.
A Rajasthan police official said Mishra frequently visited Jodhpur to attend hearings in Rajasthan High Court on a petition concerning Pakistani Hindu immigrants. The police nabbed him from a hotel in Jodhpur when three middlemen were handing over the bribe money to him.
"He used to charge between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000 from each of the desperate migrants who could not afford to go back to Pakistan," said a report sent by Rajasthan police to the home ministry.
The foreigners' division deals with visas, immigration, citizenship, overseas citizenship of India and acceptance of foreign contribution and hospitality. Mishra worked at the Jaisalmer House office where there is always a steady flow of Pakistani immigrants seeking Indian citizenship or extension of visas.
The high court is hearing a PIL pertaining to grant of citizenship to Pakistani Hindu migrants. In December last year the court had pulled up the state administration over the delay in granting citizenship to about 7,000 people in Jodhpur alone despite the applicants being eligible.
"Granting visas to Hindu migrants from Pakistan is a major issue for the BJP government in the state, where Assembly polls are due later this year. Hundreds of applications pertaining to long-term visa extensions are pending, apart from applications for citizenship," said a home ministry official.
Sources said Union home minister Rajasthan Singh had taken note of the alleged racket and asked senior officials to probe the entire process of granting long-term visas to Pakistani immigrants. He has instructed them to ensure that pending cases of Pakistani immigrants applying for Indian citizenship or extension of long-term visas are cleared according to the guidelines.
