Thane woman booked for using fake docs for passport to travel to Pakistan

Nagma alias Sanam Khan. Pic/Rajesh Gupta

The Vartak Nagar police have registered the FIR against a 23-year-old Thane resident, who recently returned to the country from Pakistan after allegedly providing fake Aadhaar and PAN cards to obtain a passport and visa in 2023. The woman, Nagma alias Sanam Khan, is married to Pakistan citizen Bashir Ahmed whom she met on Facebook in 2021. Khan claimed that she had returned to India to meet her mother who is in the hospital.

Khan told mid-day, "I was in Std VIII when my family arranged for me to be married to a local during a visit to our village in Utter Pradesh. Later, I was wed to the person and lived in his home but he was unemployed and would beat me. In 2015, I separated from him and returned home with my daughter. In 2021, during the pandemic, I met Bashir Ahmed online and we fell in love with each other. Bashir told me he would marry me and I decided to go to Pakistan. Love is supreme and no border can separate me from the object of my affection. In 2023, I applied for a passport and after receiving it, applied for a visa."

She added, "I received a passport with the name ‘Sanam Khan'. In 2015, I had changed my name from Nagma to Sanam as I love the movie Sanam and I didn't like my original name." In 2023, Khan and Ahmed decided to marry, and she applied for a visa at the Indian embassy. Due to his nationality, however, she faced a six to seven-month delay before eventually receiving it, she claimed. Before allowing her to travel to Pakistan, the Indian embassy advised her to formalise the marriage online. Khan proceeded to do so before moving to Abbottabad where Ahmed resides with his two children.

Khan claims all the relevant documents had been checked at the border. After residing living with Ahmed for a few months, due to her mother's deteriorating health, Khan recently obtained a visa and travelled from Pakistan to Thane. Khan claimed she went to the neighbouring country with valid documents and got married there of her own free will. "Both our parents are happy with this marriage, and I will continue to travel between India and Pakistan. Therefore, I request the Central and state governments to verify my documents once and for all so that I do not have to face such difficulties repeatedly as my in-laws are in Pakistan and my maternal home is in India," she said.

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Senior Inspector Rajkumar Waghchavre of Vartak Nagar said, "We have registered the FIR against Khan who managed to get a passport and visa on the basis of fake documents and travelled to Pakistan. She also returned to India recently on the same passport and we received information about her fake Aadhaar and PAN cards. We also registered an FIR against the unknown person who helped her make the fake documents. We have not arrested her but have started investigating the matter."