Fake passport cases go up

Kochi: It used to be a 'non-serious crime' with punishments confined to on-the-spot fines. But then an increasing number of people found this a way to make quick money.
Fake passport cases have seen a sudden spurt in the last few years with the maximum cases being detected at Cochin International Airport.
While just 12 cases were registered at the airport in 2008, the figures over the next two years stood at 98 and 109 cases respectively.
Investigators detected a trend where many NRKs, either pawned their passports to sponsors or banks to avail of credit, but fled the Gulf by obtaining fake passports when they defaulted in repayment.
“Currently, there are 301 fake passport cases connected with the UAE under investigation. In about 75 per cent of these cases, the accused fleeing from Gulf nations were caught at immigration in Kochi with fake passports,” an official of the crime detachment wing said.
Most of them were photo substitutions, meaning that they were using someone else’s original passport and just replacing the photograph with one of their own, he said.
29/11/11 Krishna Kumar KE/Deccan Chronicle

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Categories: airports Nov 2011