(NewsRadio); A Sri Lankan attempting to travel to the United Kingdom on a forged passport has been arrested along with a German citizen for exchanging their boarding passes at the Mumbai international airport as part of a suspected trafficking deal.
The Times of India reported a 22-year-old Sri Lankan and a 36-year-old German citizen had exchanged their boarding passes for Kathmandu and London, respectively, at an airport toilet after passing security check and immigration.
The report said their plan was foiled by an alert airline employee who spotted discrepancies in the Sri Lanka national’s boarding pass and passport.
Both have been handed over to the Sahar police, who have registered a case of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy.
They are investigating whether a trafficking ring was at work. Police said the Sri Lankan was keen to go to the UK and pursue a career.
The two met at a five-star hotel in Santa Cruz on April 9.
The report said, “As planned, the Sri Lankan had a forged British passport in German citizen’s name, and cleared immigration check at the Mumbai airport and got a boarding pass to fly to Kathmandu. The German citizen had received a boarding pass to travel to the UK. They went to a toilet and exchanged the boarding passes and continued.”
The German did not face any hurdle and flew to Kathmandu.
However, the Sri Lankan was caught when a wing in-charge spotted that the passport immigration stamp showed ‘D4.019’ and that on the boarding pass was ‘D1.240’.
In a complaint, immigration officer T N S Srinivasulu said the forgery was clear after they contacted immigration officials at Kathmandu.
The German was then deported to Mumbai.
