7 fake passports seized, 3 arrested

The Hyderabad Commissioner’s Task Force on Thursday nabbed three person, including two elderly men for holding multiple fake Indian passports.

The accused were trying to travel on fake passports to U.S.A. for work, police said.

Following a tip-off, Task Force sleuths along with the law and order police raided the residence of Hyder Ali Lalani (60), Bhanda Khada Naring Rao (69) and Mohammed Abdul Salam (53) in Abids, Trimulgherry and Asif Nagar respectively and nabbed the trio.

DCP, Task Force, P. Radha Kishan Rao, said, the accused had obtained multiple fake passports on different names by submitting fake and forged documents. Police seized a total of seven Indian passports, Aadhaar cards, voter Ids, school certificates from their possession.

Mr. Rao said, in the year 2000 Lalani had tried to obtain a B1 or B2 visa to the U.S.A. with the help of fake passport. However, his visa application was cancelled.

Later, he obtained another passport in the name of Venkat Sharma and applied for visa again. “But the Consulate rejected the application due to insufficient documents. Even when he applied with his genuine passport, the visa was rejected by the authorities,” Mr. Rao said.

Police said, “The racket has had an impact on several genuine applicants given that every year more than 70 fake passports were detected by the Consulate,” Mr. Rao said.