Mumbai: 2 Arrested, Including Teen, For Attempting Europe Travel With Fake Seaman Books; Deported From Tokyo

Mumbai: The Sahar police on Sunday arrested two people, including a teen, for allegedly trying to travel to Europe using fake seaman books. It's one of the compulsory documents for applying for shipping crew transit visas.

According to the FIR filed on August 11, Japan's All Nippon Airlines handed over Aman Singh, 26, and Saksham Raj, 19, to Mumbai immigration authorities, informing that Tokyo immigration had deported them. Their deportation notes said they had insufficient documents.

Owing to the duo's unsatisfactory answers during inquiry, the authenticity of their seaman books came under suspicion, said police. The immigration officers then cross-checked with the director general of the shipping website and found that the documents were fake.

Further investigation revealed that both men hail from Haryana, and are unemployed. Having strong aspirations to settle in Europe, they approached two agents – Satpal from Haryana and Sunny from Punjab – who informed them that obtaining European visas would be difficult. The agents proposed an alternative route to enter Europe via Mexico using fake seaman books.

Accordingly, the duo flew from Delhi to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on August 6. From there, they headed to Almaty, Kazakhstan, followed by Seoul, South Korea, and finally reached Tokyo, Japan. They planned to continue their journey to Mexico by ship using the fake seaman books. However, Tokyo immigration authorities caught them with fake documents.

Both of them have been booked under sections 318(4) (cheating), 336(2) (forgery), and 340(2) (forged document or electronic record and using it as genuine) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.