Cheating cases on the rise at airport

According to statistics compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the Indira Gandhi International Airport registered as many as 437 cases of cheating during the year 2009. Previous cases

Hours before they nabbed 46-year-old Kulwant Singh, a resident of Jalandhar in Punjab, the CISF had handed-over a Malaysian deportee to the Delhi Police.

HT Image

Rohit Gaur, who hails from Ludhiana in Punjab, had flown-in from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and was arrested because his passport bore a false immigration stamp ‘arranged’ for him by an enterprising travel agent friend, several miles away from home.

“Gaur was intercepted at around 3.30pm at the Arrival Wing of immigration. As he passed through the security check, the CISF officer on duty realised something was amiss and segregated him from other passengers at the clearance counter,” said a senior Delhi Police officer.

A closer look at Gaur’s passport, police claimed, revealed that a visa entry on a particular page seemed doubtful. Further examination clearly showed that it was a forged entry.

“Gaur was questioned at length about the said forged stamp on his passport. He finally told us that the fake stamp had been arranged by one of his friends, whom he identified as ‘Mr Pinda’, also hailing from Ludhiana,” said the officer.

According to statistics compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the Indira Gandhi International Airport registered as many as 437 cases of cheating during the year 2009.

The only other department of the Delhi Police that came even close was the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), under the Crime Branch, with 184 cases.

“Many carriers like Air India, which have connecting flights bound to both domestic and international destinations, are usually abused by such touts. The modus operandi that they use is the oldest in the book — but such cases are being detected and those involved are being booked at regular intervals,” the officer said.