Three from Gujarat among 4 held in Mumbai after being deported from Tanzania

Four individuals, including two women, a senior citizen, and a youth, were deported from Tanzania on August 16 after they attempted to enter the US with fake Indian passports. Upon their arrival in Mumbai, they were arrested by the police.

Of the four deported persons, two women and the youth belong to Mehsana, Gujarat, while their handler is a Mumbai resident.

Those arrested by the Mumbai police include Geeta Chaudhary (32), Bharti Chaudhary (37), Ansh Chaudhary (20), and their handler Ramesh Thakur (75).

Authorities in Tanzania discovered that three of the four individuals possessed two passports each, leading to their deportation.

They had been in contact with an agent named Pushpa Vyas, who had advised them to travel to the US via Tanzania. Pushpa had also instructed Thakur to accompany them.

The motive behind using fake passports is yet to be ascertained.

While their journey to the US was cut short in Tanzania, they intended to enter the US and settle there permanently.

In his complaint, immigration officer Vaibhav Bavanya stated, “We have received details of the deportation note issued by the Tanzanian authorities, but the arrested individuals have failed to provide satisfactory answers. The deportation note states that the Indian passport they had produced for immigration checks in Tanzania was fake; it belonged to another person and had been tampered with. One of the passports, belonging to Geeta, was a fake passport in the name of Ranjana Anu Chauhan; Bharti had a fake passport in the name of Kalpana Sanjay Patel. Similarly, Ansh had a fake passport in the name of Digvijay Sanjay Patel.”

The Sahar police in Mumbai have arrested all four under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) and have initiated further investigation.