According to the police, the accused—Sarfaraz Sherali Virani (27), a resident of Bandra—posed as the husband of a Gujarati woman, Rameelabain Jyotabhai Chaudhary, to secure a visa for her from the US consulate and also helped send her to the US.

The police claim that Virani is the boyfriend of former Jet Airways airhostess Aliyah Rizvi, who was arrested in the case on November 26 along with four others. So far, 12 people have been arrested in the case.

According to a remand application submitted in the Esplanade Court on Tuesday, Virani is a purser with Virgin Atlantic and has been booked for cheating, forgery, using as genuine a forged document and criminal conspiracy. Virani has been remanded to police custody till January 18.

Newsline had first reported that the Crime Branch was in pursuit of a flight purser with close connections to Rizvi for his alleged involvement in the racket.

According to the remand application submitted by the police, after the racket was busted with the arrest of Rizvi and four others, the police were on the lookout for Virani. When he was not found at his Bandra residence, they went to the airline office at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, where it was learnt that Virani had not been turning up for work. On a tip-off, Virani was finally arrested from Pune.

“Virani works as a flight purser for Virgin Atlantic. Towards the end of 2006, he posed as the husband of a woman in a visa application to the US. He was paid Rs 2 lakh by the co-accused to get the visa and accompany the woman to the US. He is also the boyfriend of Aliyah Rizvi,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Detection) Deven Bharti.