Police say that a woman and a man were arrested for defrauding over Rs.600 million from a number of people by promising education visas sponsored by a leading University in Canada.
According to the police, a large number of people including doctors, engineers, police officers, university professors have got caught in this fraud. A police officer said that a complaint had been lodged by the suspect woman and man that a person had assaulted them near the Immigration and Emigration Department in Battaramulla.
Along with the couple the person who is said to have assaulted them had been brought to the Thalangama Police.
A police officer said information about this large-scale fraud came to light when questioning the three of them.The person accused of assaulting the couple had told the police that he had given the couple Rs.1.5 million after they promised to get a Visa for his son to study in a leading University in Canada.
However, he had said the couple had not kept their promise and kept avoiding him and later it was revealed that the Colombo Fraud Investigation Division has received many complaints against them of similar offences.
A special team from the Fraud Investigation Bureau had gone to Thalangama Police and had arrested the couple over six complaints received by them.
It has been revealed that more than 400 people have been defrauded of Rs.1.5 million each from different parts of the country after promising Visas to Canada. The police say that the suspects jointly ran an office on the sixth floor of the Colombo World Trade Center offering educational visas to a leading University in Canada for a 15-month course.
The arrested man is a 63-year-old resident of Nugegoda and the female suspect is a 47-year-old, resident of Kaduwela. Police are investigating the matter further.