Malaysian jailed for involvement in helping four Sri Lankans acquire fake passports

A Malaysian man was sentenced to 10 months' jail on Wednesday (Aug 1) for his involvement in helping four Sri Lankans get hold of forged Malaysian passports, Channel NewsAsia reported. 

Jagathes Kumar Koil Pillai, 42, handed them the passports and boarding passes for a flight to Italy on Dec 27, 2017, in a toilet at Changi Airport Terminal 1. 

After that, he left and returned to Malaysia, said the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) in a media release on Thursday.

The four Sri Lankans, aged between 19 and 37, wanted to seek refuge in Italy or Switzerland, and had sought the help of an unknown Sri Lankan agent, said ICA. 

The agent then arranged for their trip through Singapore for a price that ranged between 1,000,000 and 3,000,000 Sri Lanka rupees (S$8,500 and S$25,600). 

The forged Malaysian passports bore their photographs but the information listed did not belong to them. 

ICA officers arrested the four Sri Lankans and they were each sentenced to eight months' jail on Jan 12. 
 

Jagathes was arrested on Jul 3 in Kuala Lumpur with help from the Singapore Police Force and the Royal Malaysian Police. He was brought back to Singapore the next day for investigations.

"The ICA takes a serious view of persons possessing a false travel document or abetting others to be in possession of one," said the authority. 

Those convicted of knowingly possessing a false foreign travel document may be fined up to S$10,000 and jailed for up to 10 years.