Bangladeshi arrested at CSMIA with Indian passport obtained using fake documents

Bangladeshi national, Jumo Shaikh, was arrested at Mumbai airport for attempting to fly to Dhaka with a fake passport. He is the 15th Bangladeshi national to be arrested in the past six months for using fake passports. Shaikh obtained the passport using fake documents, including a birth certificate, Aadhar, and PAN card. He had previously entered India illegally in 2011.

MUMBAI: Police in Sahar have arrested Jumo Shaikh, 34, a Bangladeshi national who was trying to fly from Mumbai to Dhaka on November 9 under a fake passport. Immigration officials at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) grew suspicious because he failed to state the purpose of his visit clearly, or even speak Marathi although his passport showed him as a resident of Chiplun. Shaikh is the 15th Bangladeshi national to be arrested at the airport in the past six months for trying to fly abroad using passports obtained via fake documents.

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On November 9, after Shaikh identified himself as Ashok Choudhary – the name on his passport, he told immigration officials that he was going to Dhaka to visit his sick mother. But when the officials checked the documents using which he had applied for the passport, they found that he had submitted a birth certificate issued by a hospital in Chiplun in Ratnagiri district in 1994.

Upon questioning, he said he had applied for a passport in 2017 with the help of an agent who made fake documents like his birth certificate, Aadhar and PAN card. Special branch officer L Singh, who questioned the accused, told the police that they then decided to verify his birth certificate.

A mail was sent to Roha Nagar Municipal Corporation asking officials to verify the genuineness of his birth certificate, purportedly issued from Bhat Nursing Home in Roha. Authorities from the nursing home reverted soon, saying they commenced operations in October 2000, and there was no possibility of any baby being born there in 1994.

Upon further questioning, the Sahar police learnt that Shaikh had entered India illegally through the border of West Bengal in 2011. Later, he travelled to Chiplun where an agent prepared a fake birth certificate showing that he was born in the town. The agent also reduced his age by five years and made a fake Aadhar and PAN card, which were used to apply for a passport at the Mumbai Regional Passport Office in 2017. Shaikh then used the passport to travel to Dubai in 2020, where he stayed for six months.