Mumbai Crime: Two nabbed with 25 fake passports

Representational Image

While conducting routine checks at lodges and hotels on Monday evening, the Sakinaka police arrested two people and seized 25 fake passports from them. Investigation has revealed the duo was involved in a fake passport racket and used to help people travel abroad based on fake documents.

The accused, identified as Suraj Shreshtha (35), a Nepali residing in Delhi and Vijaykumar Pradhan (47), a native of West Bengal, were staying in a guesthouse on 90 Feet Road at Sakinaka. When the cops reached the place and checked the register, they became suspicious of the duo. After checking their room, the officers asked them to produce their identity proofs. The accused showed their original passports to the cops and said that they were on a visit to Mumbai. Unsatisfied with their answer, cops checked their bags and found as many as 25 passports bearing different names. On searching the room further, they recovered a laptop, printer and other fake documents.

Also read - Mumbai Crime: Speaking Punjabi gets Gujarati duo flying on fake passports nabbed

A police officer said, "While interacting with the guesthouse manager, we got to know that two people were staying in room 207 and they had not come out for the past two days. He also told us that one of them was from Delhi and the other one from Kolkata. During interrogation, the duo confessed to preparing fake documents to get visas for the passport holders and that they worked for a person from Delhi." Following this, a case was registered against them. The accused were produced before the Andheri Metropolitan Court and then sent to police custody till June 27.

Also read: Immigration officers held for illegally sending 53 Indians to Canada

Senior inspector of Sakinaka police station, Avinash Dharamadhikari said, "Several others are suspected to be involved in the racket. Our team will soon visit Delhi to probe the matter."