Nepali woman held with fake Indian passport at Mumbai airport

Police have arrested a woman of Nepali origin at Mumbai international airport for trying to travel to Oman by allegedly using a forged Indian passport, an official said.

The woman approached the immigration counter at the Shivaji Maharaj International Airport last week to board a flight to Muscat. She identified herself as Kajal and produced an Indian passport, showing her place of birth as Nohra, Himachal Pradesh, the official from Sahar police station said on Tuesday.

However, her facial features appeared distinctly Nepali, raising suspicion. She was sent to the authorities concerned for further verification, where she confessed during detailed questioning that she was not Indian but a Nepali citizen, the official said.

The woman later revealed her real name as Kajal Lama and said she hailed from Nepal’s Parsa district, he said.

She told the police that her parents had migrated from Nepal to Himachal Pradesh years ago, and using this background, she managed to obtain an Aadhaar card, PAN card and a bona fide certificate on a fake Himachal address. With these forged documents, she secured an Indian passport from the Shimla Passport Office, the official said.

Based on the immigration officer’s complaint, the woman was apprehended and booked on charges of misleading the Indian passport authorities, creating forged documents and attempting illegal travel, he added.