Mumbai: Lookout notice busts family’s plan to sneak into UK with fake passports

Passengers at Mumbai international airport. Representation pic

A man and his wife have been arrested for carrying fake passports of themselves and their two minor children. The family had planned to fly out of India on their original passports and then use the forged ones to sneak into London with the help of an agent, who was to be paid Rs 80 lakh. They were exposed as there was a lookout notice on their real identity for holding fake Italian Schengen visas.

Sources in the special branch of Mumbai police said the couple, Yogeshkumar Patel and Shilpaben Patel, and their children arrived at the international airport on Saturday night. The family was supposed to fly to Abu Dhabi and they had a work visa for the Caribbean country Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

As he examined their documents, an officer found that a lookout notice had been issued against the family by the Delhi Foreigners Regional Registration Office. The notice read, "The above Indian Nationals are in possession of counterfeit Italian Schengen visas. The Counterfeit Italian Schengen Visas have been marked as forgery. On Detection Airlines may contact the German ALO or any other ALO & not accepted the passengers on these visas without proper authorisation and concern ALO and inform originator [sic]."

In his statement to the Sahar police, the officer said he didn't find any Schengen visa in the name of the couple. Since there was a red flag, he took the family to senior officers.

After locating the lookout circular, the officials questioned the couple and learnt about the family's actual plan.

"The investigation revealed that they were in touch with one agent named Manish Patel in London who had promised them to shift to London on payment of R80 lakh. His counterpart in India named Mukesh had applied for Schengen visas for the family with the Spain consulate but they got rejected," reads the statement.

The police also found that Manish Patel had helped the family procure visas for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago on a different set of passports. The fake passports carried the names of Bikas Kumar Chhapadia, Jyoti Chhapadia, Aryan Chhapadia, 16, and daughter Rutva Chhapadia, 12. "The agent also provided them with tickets from Mumbai to Abu Dhabi to Amsterdam to Panama City to Spain which establishes that their plan was to enter London using illegal passports," said an officer from the special branch.

The police said the fake passports had been sourced from Bhubaneswar, as per the details on the documents. The Sahar police have arrested the couple on the charge of cheating and forgery apart from trying to enter London using fake passports. "We are probing the role of both the agents and both will be arrested soon," said an officer from Sahar police station.