Six Chinese nationals, bound for Jakarta en route to Australia on a Singapore Airlines flight from Chennai, were detained at the airport by the immigration authorities in the early hours of Monday.
Immigration officials intercepted them as they were carrying Indonesian passports with forged immigration seals, including visas to Australia, police said.
The Chinese have been identified as Chou Wai,Chang Chea, Law Ye, Seele Zan, Chan Man and Liang Chang.
They have been arrested by the local police. They are now in judicial custody and the Chinese embassy has been informed, police said.
When contacted, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Central Crime Branch, S Arul Arasu, said “the Chinese have been charged under Sec 12(1) of the Indian Passports Act and Sec 420,467 and 481 of Indian Penal Code”.
The IPC sections deal with cheating, forgery and using false property marks.
The Chinese told the police that they were expert cooks and that they wanted to migrate to Australia. They crossed into the Indian border on foot from Tibet and travelled to New Delhi by train and bus. They obtained their documents from a travel agent in Delhi. As there was no direct flight to Jakarta from New Delhi, they came to Chennai to catch a flight.
Mr Arasu said “they told us that they took Indonesian passports as Australia has restrictions on Chinese migrating to that country.” He said police were checking whether the passports were genuine.
