Two Bangaladeshi nationals with fake passports arrested at airport | Mumbai News

MUMBAI: Sahar police have arrested two Bangladeshi nationals for allegedly using Indian passports obtained through forgery for their international travel. The suspects were arrested separately by immigration authorities at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA). One of them was traveling to Ukraine, while the other had stayed illegally in India for three decades and then traveled to Mauritius, only to be deported.

According to police, the first case was registered by an immigration officer who found a passenger with an Indian passport traveling to Moldova in Europe. Upon checking his passport, the officer discovered that he also had a visa for Ukraine, and he claimed that he was going to Ukraine via Moldova to promote Buddhism.

Immigration authorities suspected foul play and interviewed the passenger, which revealed that he was a Bangladeshi national and that his real name was Titu Barua, the son of Nikhil Barua. He was born in 1990 in Binajuri in the Chattogram of Bangladesh. He came to Gwalior in 2016 and got an Aadhaar card and a PAN card with the help of an agent. Based on these documents, he also obtained an Indian passport in 2022. Immigration authorities also found a Bangladeshi ID on his mobile and he was handed over to the Sahar police on Thursday for further legal proceedings, a police officer said.

The second Bangladeshi national arrested by Sahar police was 43-year-old Tuhin Kumar Narayanchandra Das. Das had entered India illegally in 1994 and managed to obtain an Indian passport in 2005 by submitting forged supporting documents. While the passport was renewed in 2016, Das recently traveled to Mauritius but was denied entry and deported to India.

When CSMIA immigration authorities interviewed him on his return, they found Bangladeshi identity documents on his mobile phone, showing that he was born in 1981 in Narail district of Bangladesh. He was supposed to be deported to Bangladesh, but was handed over to Sahar. police because the Bangladesh High Commission did not recognize his citizenship.

The Sahar Police have registered two separate cases regarding the two suspects under relevant sections of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Passport Act and the Foreigners Act.