Bangla man flying to Dubai on Indian passport caught

Immigration officials at the Kempegowda International Airport caught a Bangladeshi national trying to fly to Dubai on an Indian passport on March 24.

Tapas Chandra Das was arrested during the immigration check as officials found discrepancies in his travel record. He later confessed that he hails from Chittagong, Bangladesh, and had come to India along with his mother through the porous border in 2001. He was booked under the Passport Act and the Foreigners’ Act.

Das initially lived in Tripura, waiting tables at a restaurant. He managed to get Aadhaar and election cards and even a birth certificate. He later got a passport from the Regional Passport Office, Kolkata, and tried to travel to the UAE in 2017 on a work visa. But immigration officials at Dubai deported him to Lucknow from where he had boarded the flight. He then went to Bangladesh but came back to India and got a visit visa to Dubai in Kolkata.

In another incident, officials nabbed 48-year-old Saraswati Pahari after she landed from Kathmandu and submitted the Indian voter’s ID during the immigration check. She later confessed that she is from Nepal and had been living in Bengaluru since 1992 with her two children and a relative who works in the Indian Army.

Saraswati said her husband worked for HMT Watches until his death in 2018. She also managed to get Aadhaar.