A Gujarat couple was caught at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport with forged Canadian visa stamps just before they were to board a flight to Toronto on Sep 15.
According to a complaint filed at IGI Airport police station on Sep 15, Ashishsinh Chavda, 22, and wife Priyanka, 20, from Kada in Visnagar, were apprehended at the airport before they were to board an Air Canada flight to Toronto on counterfeit visas.
Now, a team from Delhi Police is camping in Gandhinagar to search for the human smuggler from Mehsana.
“The couple were to board flight number AC-43, but while conducting document checks, airline staff discovered fake visa stickers on their passports. The stickers were affixed on seventh page of their passports, with serial numbers E741959470 and E741959471,” the FIR states.
“The flight they were supposed to board was scheduled to take off from the Delhi airport at 10.50pm on Sep 15. Police have registered a case against the couple under Sections 318 (4) (cheating), 336 (3) (forgery) and 340 (2) (producing forged documents as genuine) under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) as well as Section 12 of the Passport Act for using a forged travel document,” the FIR reads.According to sources at the IGI airport, during their four-day police remand, the couple told the investigating cops that they had sought the assistance of a visa agent from Kalol town in Gandhinagar to obtain visitor’s visas for Canada.
Sources said the couple had planned to illegally cross into the US from Canada and their agent had even assured them of a job in the US. After the couple’s confession, a Delhi Police team reached Gujarat and has been camping in Gandhinagar to trace the human smuggler who is on the run.
Earlier, on Aug 22, Krupesh Patel, a man from the Ranip area of the city, was caught at the IGI airport in Delhi for allegedly trying to travel to Canada on a counterfeit visa stamp. This was his second attempt as he had been caught in 2019 at the Mumbai airport while trying to board a flight to Canada on the same forged visa.
Recently, Yash Prajapati, a 22-year-old man from Nardipur in Kalol taluka of Gandhinagar, died of a heart attack while attempting to cross the Canada-US border to enter the US. On Saturday, his body was sent to his native place, where he was cremated.
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