Bangladeshi man posing as Indian held at Lucknow airport; was going to Thailand using fake passport

A Bangladeshi man was caught at Lucknow airport posing as an Indian citizen with a fake passport and Aadhar, an official told news agency PTI on Saturday.

The Bangladeshi citizen was allegedly trying to fly to Thailand with a fake tourist visa when immigration officers in Lucknow airport found out about the fraudulent documents.

On Friday, at the Chaudhary Charan Singh airport in Lucknow, passengers of flight (FD-147) from Lucknow to Bangkok, Thailand, were being cleared at Terminal 3.

Immigration officers questioned one of the travellers Ashish Rai after noticing suspicion arose over discrepancies in his documents.

His Aadhar card and passport stated the address of Rathtala of Singur police station in the Hooghly district of West Bengal but immigration officer Rakesh Kumar Yadav felt something was off.

On further questioning, it turned out that ‘Ashish Rai’ was Shimul Barua of Shilghata, Chopachhari, Satkania, Chattogram, Bangladesh.

Barua had changed his name and address and got a passport and Aadhaar card made at a West Bengal address through fake documents. Barua’s Bangladeshi passport was also recovered from his belongings.

He was booked at Sarojini Nagar police station on Saturday and taken into custody for questioning, station in-charge Shailendra Giri told PTI.

In June 2024, three other Bangladeshi nationals had been caught at Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi, trying to board a flight to Bangkok with fake Indian documents.

They intended to seek jobs in Bangkok due to insufficient earnings in Bangladesh as labourers.

In 2024, three different operations on the illegal forging of documents for Bangladeshis to stay in India were busted by the Pimpri Chinchwad police in Pune.