Four Sri Lankans arrested in Mumbai airport over immigration fraud

Eight foreigners - four British nationals and four Sri Lankans - were arrested from Mumbai airport in a bizarre case of immigration fraud, after the Sri Lankans were caught trying to get on a flight to London by impersonating the Brits, Indian media reported.

The British suspects – Queilen Alan, Bower Dominick, Fivehats Captain and Warner Julie - were in on the fraud with the Sri Lankans - Aruna Sulhakarn, Kanthasan Kartikeyan, Gajan Chandrabalan and Karga Swami, Mid Day reported.

The Sri Lankans were trying to emigrate to the UK with fake Indian passports, but they already had Sri Lankan passports - these were found on their person after the arrest. They used their own pictures but made the fake passports in the name of their British counterparts. They bought tickets to Ahmedabad so they could enter the airport.

Meanwhile, the Brits had already checked in and got boarding passes for a flight to London in their names. They handed these over to the Sri Lankan group, which took their place. But they hit a roadblock at Immigrations, where officials were puzzled by the British-sounding names on their passports. “The officials called the security staff for an inspection, and the passports were found to be counterfeit.

e security staff apprehended them as well as the British nationals who were still at the airport. All eight were handed over to the Sahar police,” said sources.

Sr PI Baburao Mukhedkar confirmed the arrest under Sections 465, 468, 471, 420, 201 and 34 of the IPC. The accused were produced in court and remanded to police custody till March 18. Cops are investigating how the two groups came into contact and how they managed to get the fake passports.