Indian passports sent back for forgery from US, UK seized

When Customs officers at the Shahibuag Foreign Post Office opened some parcels sent from abroad during a routine security check...

When Customs officers at the Shahibuag Foreign Post Office opened some parcels sent from abroad during a routine security check, what they found were 16 Indian passports.

Ten of these parcels had come from the UK, the rest from the US.

It appeared that the passport holders had gone abroad on tourist visas and after the visas expired, sent back the passports for their relatives. Apparently, the passports were supposed to be used to get tourist visas for others.

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Ajit Kumar, Chief Commissioner of Customs (Gujarat zone), said: “All passports have been handed over to the Passport Authority of India and our investigations are on.”

“In the UK or the US, if visitors are caught for overstaying illegally, they are deported on basis of their passports. But if they do not have a passport, a legal case is filed against them for asylum,” a Customs officer said.

Normally, if passport is lost while in a foreign country, the holder is supposed to inform the police and his country’s embassy. The embassy, if convinced that it is a genuine case, cancels the lost passport and arranges for a temporary one.

“Whether the senders of these passports filed fake police complaints to get temporary passports, or whether they are in hiding with no identity proof is yet to be known,” a source said.

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Similar cases had been detected earlier and penalties were recovered from the recipients. Usually, the passports are sent to India with an intention to forge and reuse them and get tourist visas for other family members. “This seems a bigger racket and several others, including travel agents may be involved,”said a Customs officer. In view of the sensitive nature of the case, all field formations in the country have been alerted, said sources from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence.