MUMBAI: The Sahar police have arrested two Bangladeshi nationals for using forged Indian passports for their international travel. The accused were arrested separately by the immigration authorities at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) – one of them traveled to Ukraine while the other had been staying 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 department official who found a passenger with an Indian passport bound for Moldova in Europe. The officer discovered when checking his passport that he also had a Ukraine visa and he claimed that he was going to Ukraine via Moldova to propagate Buddhism.

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

The other Bangladeshi national arrested by the 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 immigration officials at CSMIA interviewed him on his return, they found Bangladeshi identity documents on his mobile phone, which revealed that he was born in the Narail district of Bangladesh in 1981. He was supposed to be deported to Bangladesh, but was handed over to the Sahar police because the Bangladesh High Commission did not recognize his citizenship.

The Sahar police have registered two separate cases in respect of the two accused under relevant sections of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Passport Act and the Aliens Act.