Engineer from Gujarat attempts flying to New Zealand on fake visa, nabbed
Updated: Nov 18th, 2024
The Sahar police in Mumbai arrested Sagar Shah, a civil engineer from Vallabh Vidyanagar in Gujarat, who was attempting to travel to New Zealand using a fake visa. Sagar had paid an agent named Priya Patel of Vallabh Vidyanagar ₹50,000 to arrange his fraudulent visa.
Shah, 29, had travelled to Mumbai airport to catch a flight to New Zealand. However, during the immigration check at the airport, authorities became suspicious when they noticed that Sagar did not have a boarding pass for his onward flight from Hong Kong to New Zealand.
When questioned, Sagar claimed that during his flight from Ahmedabad to Mumbai, the airline had issued him a combined boarding pass that covered both his flight from Ahmedabad to Mumbai and his other flight from Mumbai to Hong Kong.
He also stated that he was instructed to collect the boarding pass for his New Zealand flight at Mumbai airport from a Pacific Airlines counter.
The immigration officers grew suspicious of these claims and decided to thoroughly check the details of his New Zealand visa. Upon investigation, they found irregularities in the visa, which was later revealed to be fake.
The officers then contacted Pacific Airlines to verify Sagar’s story, and the airline confirmed that no such boarding pass had been issued to him.
Sagar later admitted that he had tried to obtain a student visa for Canada in 2018, but it had been rejected by Canadian authorities. As a result, he decided to try to migrate to New Zealand instead.
Sagar contacted the agent Priya Patel in Vallabh Vidyanagar, who provided him with fraudulent visitor visa for ₹50,000.
Using these fake papers, Sagar was going to attempt to board a flight from Hong Kong to New Zealand.
The Sahar police have registered a case against Sagar under the Passport Acts.
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