Bangladesh national held at RGI Airport with Indian passport

Hyderabad: Immigration authorities at Rajiv Gandhi International (RGI) Airport, Shamshabad, apprehended a passenger from Dhaka, Bangladesh, for being in possession of a fraudulently obtained Indian passport on Monday. Ansari Pintu, holding an Indian passport, arrived at the immigration counter after disembarking from the Dhaka-Hyderabad flight 6E1118.According to a complaint filed by Simanchala Patro, an immigration officer at RGI Airport, the suspect raised red flags during a routine profiling process. Further investigation revealed that the passenger allegedly crossed the porous India-Bangladesh border illegally and subsequently procured an Indian passport with fabricated documents.Authorities also recovered additional documents from the suspect, including a Bangladesh national ID card bearing the name Md Pannu Molla, an Aadhar card, a PAN card, and the passenger's boarding pass. A case was formally registered under Sections 318(4), 336(3), and 340(2) of the BNS Act, as well as Sections 12(1)(a)(b) of the Indian Passport Act and Section 14(A)(b) of the Foreigners Act.The suspect was taken into custody for further interrogation to ascertain the full extent of the fraudulent activities and illegal border crossing. In 2024, two more cases were reported where Bangladeshi nationals tried to fly in and out of RGIA.On Oct 16, 2024, a 29-year-old Bangladeshi woman, who illegally entered India and obtained fake Indian documents, was caught at the RGI Airport while returning from Muscat, Oman. The passenger, Sonali Ballav, hailing from Pandav Nagar, Delhi, arrived by flight 6E-1274. It was revealed that Sonali was not an Indian citizen as her passport claimed, but rather a Bangladeshi national, Sonali, daughter of Ayyub Ali from Manikganj Sadar in Bangladesh. Sonali later confessed to entering India illegally in 2015 through the Petrapole-Benapole border in West Bengal. Similarly, a complaint was filed with the RGI Airport police by the Bureau of Immigration officials on Feb 5, alleging that a 20-year-old passenger hailing from Agartala, Tripura, claiming to be Akash Chowdhury, a resident of East Dukli in West Tripura, was attempting to fly to Sharjah by flight No. 6E-1421 on the basis of a UAE tourist visa.The profiling of the passenger raised considerable doubt regarding his true identity, suspecting that he fraudulently obtained an Indian passport from Kolkata. It was revealed that the passenger was a Bangladeshi national, Akash Das, a resident of Bhairab Bazar, Kishoreganj district, Dhaka division, Bangladesh. The passenger later confessed and provided copies of his parents' Bangladeshi national IDs, his education and birth certificates.The passenger had previously entered India illegally through Tripura in 2020, moved to Gul Bazar, Tripura, and stayed in a rented accommodation. Subsequently, he obtained an Aadhar Card, PAN, Tripura permanent resident certificate, and Indian passport. In 2023, two such cases were reported.