Couple arrested for using fake passports

According to the police, The couple, Maldebhai and Hiral Modhvadia, were travelling on Portuguese passports under the names Mohsin Abdulcadir Saleman and Aloysia Angela Fernandes

Mumbai: A couple, who are from Gujarat but living in the UK since 2018, was arrested recently at the airport for allegedly using fake Portuguese passports.

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According to the police, The couple, Maldebhai and Hiral Modhvadia, were travelling on Portuguese passports under the names Mohsin Abdulcadir Saleman and Aloysia Angela Fernandes.

“The name with which the husband was travelling had a lookout notice issued against it by the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), the immigration officers from the airport,” an officer from Sahar police station said.

“The couple moved to the UK in 2018 and settled in Leicester. They met an agent there who secured Portuguese passports for them for 25,000 British pounds. For five years now, they have both been working in the UK on Portuguese passports,” the officer said, adding that they have also used these passports to travel to India.

On Wednesday evening, the couple was supposed to take a flight from Mumbai to Lisbon, Ireland. They were nabbed by immigration officers when their documents were being screened before boarding the aeroplane. The immigration officers then handed the couple over to the Sahar police for further legal action.

The couple has been booked under sections 419 (cheating by impersonation), 420 (fraud), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery with the purpose of cheating) and 471 (using forged documents as genuine) of the Indian Penal Code.