Ahmedabad: The immigration formalities were over, the security checks were done, and that was when the alleged swap happened. In an unusual attempt to change both his destination and identity at Delhi international airport, a resident of Ranip — who had been cleared to fly to Nepal — allegedly exchanged his boarding pass with a Thane resident so that he could board a flight to Toronto instead, according to an FIR.The incident took place at Indira Gandhi International Airport in the early hours of Aug 16. An airline staff member stopped a passenger scheduled to fly to Canada after suspecting that he had a fake Canadian visa and passport. During questioning, officials discovered that the man was actually an Ahmedabad resident, who had originally been cleared to fly to Kathmandu on another flight. He had shown his voter identity card as proof, stated the FIR.According to the FIR, the actual holder of the visa was a Thane resident who had completed departure immigration formalities for Toronto.
Past visa swap cases
“After both had obtained their boarding passes and crossed the security hold area, the Ahmedabad man exchanged his boarding pass with the Thane resident. He assumed the Canada-bound passenger’s identity and proceeded towards the flight,” said the FIR.The Ahmedabad man allegedly carried a fake Indian passport containing the same biographical details as the genuine passport holder but a different photograph. A fake Indian immigration departure stamp dated Aug 15 was also found on the forged document, stated the FIR.Police sources said the Ahmedabad man wanted to travel to Canada and allegedly carried out the exchange at his travel agent’s behest.The Ranip resident and the Thane passenger have been booked at the IGI Airport police station under BNS provisions for cheating, cheating by personation, forgery, use of forged documents, and criminal conspiracy. The FIR also invokes provisions of the Passports Act.Police have collected the original and forged passports, boarding passes, identity documents, passenger logs and CCTV footage. Investigators are examining the role of the travel agent and trying to establish how the two passengers coordinated the alleged exchange.
