A well-known academic and theater director has been arrested on charges of selling US visas. She is being held without bail, pending a court appearance. Rani Balbir, who teaches at the Punjab University and was to take over as head of the Indian theater department next year, was picked up on Sunday after a four-hour raid at her home in the up market Sector 9 neighborhood, the Tribune newspaper reported. The production manager of her theater troupe has also been arrested.
Police says it recovered two passports after the raid.
The pages containing the US visas had been torn off. Police acted after a couple, Jagjiwan Singh and his wife Inderjeet Kaur, complained that Balbir had demanded Rs 1.2 million from them before returning their passports with the US visa. They said Balbir had informed them that she would take them to the US as members of her troupe. They said they had handed over their passports to her on July 17. While not commenting on the Balbir case, informed sources said that visas for European and North American countries could be obtained in the grey market.