NRHM scam accused’s daughter held for travelling on forged visa

The Delhi Police have arrested the daughter of senior IAS officer Pradeep Shukla, an accused in the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam, for allegedly travelling on a forged visa to the US.

The Delhi Police have arrested the daughter of senior IAS officer Pradeep Shukla, an accused in the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam, for allegedly travelling on a forged visa to the US.

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The arrest has puzzled the police as Poulomi Pavini Shukla, a student of mathematics at Pennsylvania University in Philadelphia, USA, was carrying the original visa too but showed the forged one to the immigration authority at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA).

Shukla, 21, had approached the immigration authority on Wednesday around midnight. “She was to travel to New York by an Air India flight and the visa was issued on January 9. The visa was found forged and she was handed over to the police,” a senior police officer said.

Shukla was carrying two passports, one expired and the other one issued in August 2012. Police claimed that her father reached Delhi soon after she was arrested but even he was unable to explain the reason behind the forged visa.

“She is not cooperating with us. We have found the original visa with her which she had kept with the passport. Her father is also not sure about the reason why she did not show the original one,” the officer added.

Shukla told the police that she was to meet her brother in New York. While her old passport has travel stamps of various countries, the new one had the forged US visa only. She was produced before the court on Wednesday and was granted bail.