By NNN-Bernama,
Chennai : Seven air passengers comprising Indian and Sri Lankan nationals were detained at the Chennai International Airport in connection with using forged travel documents and fake passports to travel to Kuala Lumpur over the past three days.
Another four Indians returning to Chennai from Kuala Lumpur using fake passports were also held at the airport.
Bernama understands that it has been an ongoing trend for some Sri Lankans to arrive in Chennai to obtain bogus documents and fly to Malaysia or Singapore, and transit to the United States or Canada.
On Wednesday night, airport immigration authorities detained three Sri Lankan nationals for swapping their airline boarding passes.
According to investigating officers, Yogaraja Vasantharasan, 35, obtained a boarding pass for a Toronto-bound flight and his friend, Achuthanpillai Balachandran, 35, for a flight to Malaysia.
They later exchanged their boarding passes.
When airport authorities checked Achuthanpillai, he was found holding Yogaraja’s passport, with which he exchanged his boarding pass and attempted to board the flight to Toronto.
The third passenger, Dharmarajah Devananthan, 26, was attempting to fly to Kuala Lumpur (KL) using a passport belonging to Navaratnam Balendran, but authorities managed to nab him.
Upon investigation, it was discovered that Dharmarajah with his false passport was planning to exchange his boarding pass with another person. However, the fourth passenger, sensing trouble, disappeared from the airport.
The three Sri Lankans are now under police custody.
“This has been an ongoing trend for quite sometime. From Sri Lanka, they come to Chennai to obtain bogus documents and fly to Malaysia or Singapore, and transit to the US or Canada,” a senior Chennai police investigating officer, who declined to be named, told Bernama, Saturday.
Meanwhile, on Thursday night, Lawrence Christy, 58, and G. Ilavarasu, 33, both Chennai residents had obtained Indian passports fraudulently to travel to Kuala Lumpur but were arrested at the airport when they were about to check in.
On the same night, another two Indians, R. Darani Singh, 33, and Arokiam, 42, returning to Chennai from Kuala Lumpur were held for travelling on fake passports.
And, in a similar case late last night, airport authorities detained three more Indian nationals travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Chennai using their friend’s passports but with their photographs affixed to it.
The three offenders – Veerabathran, 33, Mathialagan, 38, and Ganesh Kumar, 21, all from Tamil Nadu, are now placed under judicial custody.
Last week, the Times of India reported that several Chennai-based agents with Colombo links helped Sri Lankan Tamils to migrate to the US and Canada by providing bogus travel documents and passports.
The paper revealed that these agents were behind thousands of Tamils fleeing their war-torn homeland by arranging their travel via Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.