A couple from Mehsana were caught at Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport in Delhi with forged Canadian visa stamps just before they were to board a flight to Toronto on Sep 15. Now, a team from Delhi Police is camping in Gandhinagar to search for the human smuggler from Mehsana.
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. “The couple were to board flight, 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 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 at the IGI airport 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.
Earlier, on Aug 22, Krupesh Patel, a man from the Ranip area of Ahmedabad, 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.
