Seven men booked for using forged documents to travel to Guyana

The documents included fake call letters purportedly appointing the men to a project of a Nashik-based construction company, along with letters from the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs and the High Commission of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana

Mumbai: Seven men from Haryana have been booked for allegedly providing an international airline forged documents in an attempt to travel to Guyana. The documents included fake call letters purportedly appointing the men to a project of a Nashik-based construction company, along with letters from the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs and the High Commission of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana.

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According to the complaint registered with the police, Abdul Pervez Sheikh, deputy manager (HR) at Ashoka Buildcon, Nashik, filed a complaint with the police after being queried by the company’s project head in Guyana, Kishor Gadda, about the authenticity of the men’s travel arrangements.

“Along with call letters from our company, the accused had also provided the airline with letters from the Indian home ministry and the high commission of Guyana. The call letters were on the letter head of our company, which I realised were not issued by the company,” said Sheikh.

The letter from the ministry of home affairs also had a signature of Pradeep Meghnathan (engineer planning) as a representative of the company, he told the police. Sheikh added that the employee had left the company a few months ago. Other employees of the company mentioned in the letter of the high commission never worked for the company.

“After being notified of these fake letters, I visited the office of the airline at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. They told me the tickets for which these supporting documents were provided were booked through a Mumbai-based travel agency,” Sheikh further said in his statement to the police. After this, he approached the officers from unit 8 of Mumbai police’s crime branch.

During the investigation, the police realised that the company’s documents and name were being used by someone to illegally send people to the South American country. Based on the information collected, they registered a case against the seven men, booking them under sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonesty), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating) and 471 (using forged documents as genuine) of the Indian Penal Code.

“None of the men have been arrested yet. Investigation in the case are underway,” said an official from the crime branch.