A 23-year-old boy was arrested on Thursday at the immigration checkpoint of the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport while travelling from London to Ahmedabad with a fake passport.
“On Thursday, Tushal Patel was travelling from London to Ahmedabad and at the immigration checkpoint, he was enquired about the passport where he identified himself as Tushal Menezes and a resident of Valsad. When probed further, he revealed his actual identity as Tushal Patel,” said BC Solanki, crime branch assistant commissioner of police, Ahmedabad Special Operations Group, Friday.
Patel is an Ahmedabad resident, according to copies of his original passport, PAN card, and Aadhaar card produced on his phone, and his father lives with his uncle in the Bopal area. “He met a woman named Rita, an agent who assisted him in obtaining a fake passport issued in Surat in 2021. Rita assisted Patel in obtaining a UK visa in 2022. “He went to London in August 2022,” Solanki explained.
The fake passport mentions ‘Rita’ as Patel’s mother. “We are yet to get the details of the woman,” he added. In London, the officer added, Patel worked at a pizza joint. He was in Ahmedabad to seek treatment for kidney stones. He initially wanted to go to Canada for work, but the agent made the visa available for the UK.
According to Solanki, Patel obtained a fake passport after his visa was rejected based on the document. The UK visa can be obtained for Rs 30 lakh. Patel was charged with violating IPC sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 419 (cheating by personation), 465 (forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged), and 114 (abettor present when offence is committed), as well as various sections of the Passport Act, 1967.