Chennai: Immigration officials at Chennai airport have detained a 46-year-old Sri Lankan national after he attempted to escape to Paris with a boarding pass of another passenger, also a Lankan national.
The two of them had exchanged their boarding passes after immigration and customs checks, investigation revealed. Efforts are on to extradite the other passenger who had reached Colombo, officials said. Preliminary investigation revealed that the two were part of a fake passport racket and have also escorted a few of their clients to other countries.
Abdul Hamid (46), who is now in airport police custody, was secured at the Delhi airport on Friday. He was supposed to travel in a Sri Lankan airlines flight to Colombo from Chennai that day. The other person, Gajendran (37) was to travel in an Air India flight to Paris via New Delhi, airport sources said.
After routine checks, the two had exchanged their boarding passes. Gajendran boarded the flight to Colombo while Abdul Hamid boarded the Air India flight and reached New Delhi.
"Though passengers are seldom checked in transit flights, immigration officials at Delhi had suspicions and detained him," according to an official. Abdul Hamid was offloaded and interrogated when officials learnt about their impersonation act. "It is still not clear as to why they exchanged their passes and what their plans were. However, preliminary investigations revealed that the two were part of a fake passport racket and even escort their clients to foreign countries," an immigration official said.
He was handed over to officials at Chennai on Monday after which the 'Q' branch and Intelligence Bureau (IB) conducted investigation, airport sources said. He has been handed over to airport police.
Hamid had reportedly told investigators about a person, Mohammed, who masterminded the operation and claimed innocence of intricate details. "Abdul Hamid had landed at Chennai only on Thursday. He claimed to have received a meagre amount in USD for this operation," the official added. Teams have been formed to trace Mohammed. Efforts are on to extradite Gajendran for investigation here.
