Two citizens of Bangladesh with forged passports were detained at the airport Mumbai news

MUMBAI: Sahara police have arrested two Bangladeshi nationals for allegedly using fake Indian passports for international travel. The accused were picked up separately by immigration authorities at the Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) – one of them was on his way to Ukraine, while the other had been in India illegally for three decades before heading to Mauritius, where he was deported.

According to the police, the first case was registered by an immigration officer who found a passenger with an Indian passport who was heading to Moldova in Europe. When checking his passport, the officer found that he also had a Ukrainian visa, and he claimed to be on his way to Ukraine via Moldova to promote Buddhism.

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

The second Bangladeshi national arrested by Sahara Police was 43-year-old Tuhin Kumar Narayanchandra Das. Das entered India illegally in 1994 and managed to obtain an Indian passport in 2005 by providing forged supporting documents. Although the passport was renewed in 2016, Das recently traveled to Mauritius but was refused entry and deported to India.

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

Sahara police have registered two separate cases against the two accused under relevant sections of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Passport Act and the Foreigners Act.