About 25 Indian passports and fake visas to the US were recovered from the three, Additional Police Commissioner V V Rabari told a press conference here.

He said that acting on a tip-off, a team comprising members of the Immigration Branch and local police raided Hotel Ellis under the jurisdiction of Ellisbridge police station and arrested three persons from a room there, just as they were about to give passports embossed with fake US visas to some persons. Police also recovered Rs 55,000 and other documents.

Police said the persons were identified as Kishan Babulal Patel (50), Govind Prajapati (47), both residents of Ghanshyamnagar, and Ramsinh Kubersinh Chauhan (49) of Damyanti Park near Civil Hospital.

Rabari said that Kishan had been making counterfeit visas for over a year using an electronictypewriter and duplicate plastic stickers.

The three sold the fake visas to the US for Rs 1.60 lakh. After preparing the counterfeit visa, they asked the customer to come to the hotel, where one of their associates then raided the hotel room in the guise of a police inspector. Police said several customers had been blackmailed and cheated by the three, who, according to complaints, had accumulated more than Rs 10 lakh through these means.

Police said the three had been booked under Sections 419, 468, 465, 471, 420 of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 10 and 12 of the Indian Passport Act. On Sunday, they were produced before a local court where they were remanded to police custody till July 12.