Immigration officer,Jet staffer held for trafficking

Immigration officer Chaman Azhar allegedly facilitated travel on forged immigration stamps for money,police said. Four passengers,including three women,were also arrested.

The fraud was detected after a woman,Asha Panigrahi,was deported from Brussels for travelling on a forged immigration stamp on March 20.

Police added that Jet Airways staffer Manoj Sarpal used to provide fake boarding passes.

Passengers of domestic flights that take off from the international airport are not required to undergo an immigration check. If they have a boarding pass from the airline concerned,they can directly head for the security hold area,police said.

Passengers travelling on fake immigration stamp provided by Azhar would show their passports here and go on to board their flights,police added.

On April 1,an FIR was filed by Jet Airways after its staff noticed forged documents on one Anisha Rahimbhai Mardeja,who was travelling to Toronto. “The supervisor felt that the passport had not been checked by the airline staff during check-in,” the FIR stated.

Mardeja’s passport and visa were allegedly found to be forged. During questioning,the woman told the staff that her real name was Nazma Maredia.

“Sarpal used to collect passengers’ passports and hand them to Azhar. The officer would endorse the passports with fake immigration stamps. Sarpal returned the passports to the passengers and guided them to the international flight through the domestic flight channel,” a senior police officer said.

“Clearance of three other passengers was also handled by Sarpal on April 1,” he added.