IGIA: Major document forgery syndicate busted

NEW DELHI: The IGI Delhi Airport Police team has dismantled a syndicate involved in creating and using fake documents to facilitate illegal travel.

The police were alerted about the agents through an apprehension at the IGI Delhi Airport of an illegal traveler.

The arrested accused were identified as Meghraj Shrestha (49), Prakash Kujur (35), Mihirmoy Rai (28), and Barun Singh Rathor (39), all the accused were residents of Darjiling, West Bengal.

According to the Police, the case unraveled when the female passenger, Hetalben Jitendra Kumar Valand, posing as Anju Chhetri, was deported from Tel Aviv, Israel.

Hetalben had overstayed her previous visit to Israel from 2012 to 2023, leading to her blacklisting and deportation in January 2023. Upon her return, she conspired to re-enter Israel using forged documents.

On April 3, Hetalben was intercepted under the alias Anju Chhetri at IGI Airport. Her interrogation revealed the forged nature of her documents, prompting a detailed investigation. She admitted to obtaining these documents through a network of agents for Rs 6 lakh.

During the investigation, it was discovered that the agents had manufactured multiple fake identities.

Meghraj Shrestha and his associates Prakash Kujur and Mihirmoy Rai facilitated the creation of fake Aadhaar cards, voter IDs, PAN cards, and birth certificates. These documents were used to obtain a fraudulent passport for Hetalben.

Further interrogation revealed that the network’s operations were sophisticated. Meghraj Shrestha, originally from Nepal, had been in India since 2003-04, engaging in various fraudulent activities and he was a habitual offender previously arrested by the CBI in 2023 for similar activities.

Prakash Kujur and Mihirmoy Rai played key roles in the forgery process, with

Mihirmoy leveraging his position at IDBI Bank in Siliguri to create and update Aadhaar cards.

The police team successfully tracked and arrested the agents from various locations in West Bengal.