68-year-old man held from Delhi airport for using forged passport to get Hong Kong residency

He was caught during immigration clearance on Thursday while returning from Hong Kong, when an immigration officer realised that he looked much younger than the age shown in the passport. Police have arrested him for forgery.

The Delhi Police has arrested a 68-year-old man from the Delhi airport for forging his passport in order to get Hong Kong permanent resident ID, after repeated attempts to acquire one failed. The man used to dress up as an elderly Sikh man with a turban while travelling to Hong Kong.

The Delhi Police has arrested a 68-year-old man from the Delhi airport for forging his passport in order to get Hong Kong permanent resident ID, after repeated attempts to acquire one failed. (Representative Image) (NYT)

He was caught during immigration clearance on Thursday while returning from Hong Kong, when an immigration officer realised that he looked much younger than the age shown in the passport. Police have arrested him for forgery.

Police identified the man as Gurdip Singh, a resident of Moga in Punjab. The forgery came to light on Thursday when he landed at the Delhi airport’s T3 and proceeded for immigration clearance.

Deputy commissioner of police (IGI airport) Sanjay Bhatia said the suspect introduced himself as Karnail Singh from Moga, Punjab. In his passport, his age was given as 89 years. When the immigration officer looked at Singh, he realised that the man looked much younger. He then asked Singh to join him for questioning and he was taken to a separate area of the airport.”

During questioning, the man revealed that his real name was Gurdip Singh and that in his passport, his age is 21 years more than his actual age. “He said he went to Hong Kong for the first time on his original passport in 1995 and thereafter, made regular visits. He said despite his best efforts, he couldn’t obtain a permanent resident ID of Hong Kong. In 2006, he contacted an agent in Chandigarh who arranged a fake passport for him in the name of Karnail Singh. Singh said since 2008, he has been visiting Hong Kong on the fraudulently obtained passport and that he even succeeded in obtaining a permanent ID of Hong Kong,” the DCP said.

The immigration staff then called up the Delhi Police and the man was handed over to them for legal action. Bhatia said Singh was charged for forgery and efforts to trace his contact who helped him in getting the fake passport are underway.

In a similar incident last week, a 32-year-old man was arrested at the Delhi’s IGI airport for trying to board a flight to New York, dressed as an 81-year-old. The man, Jayesh Patel, reached T3 on a wheelchair, posing as an elderly man and tried to trick his way through security check as well as immigration. Patel was caught when CISF personnel realised that his voice didn’t match his age. Officials said despite his grey hair, his face hardly had any wrinkles.