A 27-year-old man named Sahil Kumar Patel has been using a fake passport to travel between Mumbai and the United Kingdom since 2021. The Airport authority has filed a case against him for alleged cheating and forgery.
On December 12, at 9 p.m., a passenger named Pittu Mananzes arrived at Mumbai International Airport from London. During passport verification, the immigration officer became suspicious of the document. It was revealed that the Foreign Regional Registration office in Ahmadabad had flagged him for scrutiny due to his dubious passport.
Fake passport made in 2018
Further investigation disclosed that Patel initially created a fake passport in 2018, assuming the identity of Sahil Kumar Patel from Ahmadabad, Gujarat. Later, in 2021, he crafted another fake passport as Pittu Mananzes with the assistance of an agent named Kisan from Surat, aiming to secure employment in the UK.
Patel, a B.Com graduate, successfully traveled to the UK in 2021 and subsequently obtained a UK residential card in 2022. He has made multiple trips between India and the UK. The immigration office has filed a case against Patel, invoking sections 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using a forged document as genuine) of the Indian Penal Code, along with relevant sections of the Passport Act.
