Now Reading: Uttar Pradesh businessman held at Bengaluru airport with fake passport
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Uttar Pradesh businessman held at Bengaluru airport with fake passport
A businessman from Uttar Pradesh was detained at Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru after immigration officials found he was travelling on a fraudulently obtained passport. Police identified the man as Rahul Gupta,…
A businessman from Uttar Pradesh was detained at Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru after immigration officials found he was travelling on a fraudulently obtained passport. Police identified the man as Rahul Gupta, who arrived from Thailand on August 22 carrying a passport in the name of Ankit Gupta.
During questioning, Rahul admitted to overstaying his tourist visa in Thailand, after which he was blacklisted and deported. To return, he allegedly obtained a second passport under a fake identity and used it to travel to Thailand, renewing it there twice. He also married a Thai woman to facilitate his stay.
Rahul allegedly told police about a racket in Gorakhpur and Lucknow that provides fake passports, Aadhaar cards and driving licences for around Rs 10,000. Police have registered a case for fraudulent procurement and use of the passport. The investigation is ongoing.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The case points to a well-documented vulnerability: India's passport issuance system, managed by the Ministry of External Affairs, relies on police verification and document checks that can be bypassed with forged Aadhaar cards. A 2023 Comptroller and Auditor General report flagged that 1,611 passports were issued on the basis of incomplete or fake documents in a single year. The racket described, offering a full identity package for Rs 10,000, mirrors patterns seen in earlier passport fraud rings busted in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The next step will be for the Bengaluru police to coordinate with their counterparts in Gorakhpur and Lucknow to trace the network and identify the intermediaries who produced the forged documents.
Source: deccanherald.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
