The police said the accused duo ran the racket from a staff quarter in Safdarjung Hospital and has been in operation for the past three years.

The police have seized 102 passports, computers and application forms (SARAL among others) from the hospital quarter.

ACP (Crime Branch) Satyendra Garg said alleged kingpin Ajay Shukla, his associate Pawan Mishra and Gursahib Singh, a visa applicant, were caught by the special team of Delhi Police’s Crime Branch from various parts of the Capital on Wednesday. They have been booked for cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy.

ACP Garg said Shukla targeted “innocent looking people” applying for visa at the US embassy and offered help in rectifying the mistakes with forged supporting the documents.

Shukla, the police said, charged Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh from those who successfully got visas with his forged documents; he took Rs 15,000-20,000 from rejected applicants. This, Garg said, was Shukla’s “processing fee”. He said Shukla forged PAN cards, income tax returns and bank statements as supporting documents: “All visas (police found) were original but supporting documents were forged.” Police officials said this was among the three biggest human trafficking rackets busted in the Capital in the past one year.

ACP Garg said Shukla had rented the staff quarter of a Safdarjung Hospital security guard, one Parashar, and used the place to forge documents. Shukla’s arrest came following information from his associate Pawan Mishra — the latter was held from Rohini, in northwest Delhi. The police recovered fake bank statements, authority letters, visa deposit slips, visa interview letters and two original passports from the alleged kingpin. Based on information from Mishra’s interrogation, Shukla was arrested from near the US embassy in Chanakyapuri.

Singh, who was in the queue of visa applicants, was also arrested after the police found he possessed forged documents supplied by Shukla.

The police have also seized a large number of fake bank statements, income tax papers, statements of various banks, fake documents filed with passports, rubber stamps of various banks and income tax department. Shukla and Mishra have purportedly told the police during interrogation that they had sent more than 100 people to the US with their forged documents, and that most of the applicants came from Punjab.

Shukla, police officials said, stays in a “palatial house in Green Park” and owns a Honda Civic car. His father-in-law was also arrested a few years back on human trafficking charges; he, too, stays with Shukla.