Mishra, who has been charged with misrepresentation and communicating false information under Canada’s Immigration Refugee Protection Act, will only spend 19 more months in jail, considering the time he has already served since his arrest in Surrey in June 2023.
According to sources, Mishra could be eligible for parole before the conclusion of his sentence, which was handed down on May 29, 2024.
The guilty verdict has come as a breather for hundreds of ex-international students, who came to Canada from India between 2017-2020, on fraudulent admission letters, which they maintain they had no knowledge of.
According to the students, Punjab-based Mishra signed the fake admission letters while charging anywhere between Rs 15-20 lakhs (14,000 to 19,000 GBP).
Though Mishra-owned Education and Migration Services assured them of confirmed admissions in public institutions such as Seneca and Humber College, they were told by the agent that their admissions hadn’t been validated once they arrived in Canada, forcing them to accept admittance to less prestigious, tier-two institutions.
After completing their studies, the students obtained work permits and eventually moved on with the permanent residency procedure, which is when the Canada Border Services Agency discovered that the original college offer letters used to gain study permits were fake.
This saw CBSA sending the ex-students deportation notices in 2022 and 2023, leading to massive protests by the latter in Canadian cities such as Brampton, Mississauga, Toronto, and others.
In light of the protests, and the aggrieved individuals finding support across political lines in Canada, Immigration Refugees Citizenship Canada halted the deportations for an ‘interim period’ until every case was reviewed by a joint task force comprising officials from the IRCC and CBSA.
Our testimonies and submitted proofs have shown that Brijesh Mishra is the one who cheated us
Karamjeet Sandhu, impacted student
Though some ex-students have been cleared of any wrongdoing in the fake offer letter scam, others are still going through the hearing process to prove their innocence in the matter, The PIE has learned.
“Our testimonies and submitted proofs have shown that Brijesh Mishra is the one who cheated us and owned the agencies ESMA and ESM, which provided us with fraudulent admission letters,” said Karamjeet Sandhu, who is one of the hundreds of students impacted by the scam.
Despite Mishra serving less than two more years behind bars in Canada, he could be deported back to India where he faces another set of criminal charges, including a human smuggling offence under the Punjab Travel Act, as per a CBC report.
Notably, none of Mishra’s family members were present in the court, amid reports that they were being harassed by the families of his alleged victims back in India.
The CBSA is still locating all possible victims of Mishra and other fraudsters involved in the scam, according to CBC.
