Ahmedabad: A Vastral resident’s Switzerland dreams came crashing down before he could board the flight to the tourism haven after he was caught using a stolen passport after allegedly forging it. Police apprehended Sandip Patel (name changed) at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi on Nov 21 after authorities at the immigration desk detected fraudulent documentation during the verification process. This is not the first time that someone has been caught travelling abroad on forged documents or a stolen passport. However, until now, those caught were found to have violated the rules to settle down in the US or other countries. This is the first time that an accused was found with a forged document for a holiday in Switzerland.
According to an FIR filed with the IGI airport police of Delhi, Patel arrived at the immigration desk of the international terminal at the IGI airport. On checking his passport, the staff found that it belonged to someone else. “During his immigration clearance, it was observed that the passport found with the passenger from Ahmedabad was a lost Indian passport belonging to one Ramesh Kumar. The passport had been further forged with mala fide intention and to cheat the Indian immigration system,” said the FIR filed with IGI airport police. The FIR stated that Patel was booked for cheating, forgery and producing a forged document as genuine under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Act. Sources at the IGI airport said that Patel consulted a visa agent from Ahmedabad for a trip to Zurich in Switzerland and was provided the forged passport for the trip. Human smugglers used stolen passport numbers to create a new passport for their client, which threw them into a legal net.
