Mumbai: Trio’s attempt to fly to Armenia on fake boarding passes foiled

The agents had issued them fake passports under new identities, police said. Representation pic

Immigration officials at Mumbai's international airport nipped a new modus operandi in the bud with the arrest of three people trying to fly out on fake boarding passes. The Sahar police seized from them fake passports, fake visas, rubber stamps of the immigration department and tickets to Armenia.

Ravikumar Dahyabhai Patel, Jayeshkumar Natvarlal Patel and Nidhiben Fuljibhai Parajiya, all residents of Mahesana in Gujarat, were caught at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport on Sunday. They told the police that they wanted to settle in Canada for which they had taken the help of agents. They first met an agent named Satish in Mahesana who took their original passports, other documents and photographs and told them that agent Sunny will guide them further, according to police.

Satish introduced them to one Sayyed in Mumbai. "On April 20, they arrived in Mumbai and met Sayyed, who told them to stay in a hotel near Marol Metro railway station," a cop said. On April 22, Sayyed returned their original passports along with fake visas of India and original flight tickets to Armenia. The accused were supposed to travel to Canada from Armenia. Sayyed gave them fake Canadian citizenship papers and fake passports along with new identities of Richard Lopez Fernandes, Parthkumar Natwarlal Patel and Gurmit Kaur.

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A police officer said, "Sayyed instructed them to use fake Canadian passports and original tickets to Armenia at the airport entry. However, at the immigration, they were told to use their original passport to avoid getting caught." They were instructed to show the immigration fake boarding passes. However, as no tickets were issued for these boarding passes, the officials caught the trio on scanning the boarding papers. The immigration cross-checked with the airline, which confirmed not issuing these passes and the trio were caught.

If they had cleared immigration, they were to stamp their fake passports and original boarding passes in the toilet, police said. They were told to destroy their original passports, fake boarding passes and rubber stamps before boarding the flight. Police said they are searching for the agents.