Valsad man forges documents to get Portuguese passport, arrested

Surat: Valsad police busted a racket of getting Portuguese citizenship using forged documents and arrested a 30-year-old man, who recently returned from the European country.
The accused secured Portugal passport and citizen card by establishing his identity as a native of Daman.

Police arrested Mohammad Almas alias Gino Abdul Kadar Bhindiwala, who had changed his name to Aadi Magan in the Portuguese passport. He was arrested from his house in Aamrin Apartment in Shahid Chowk in Valsad following specific information.

Police investigation also revealed that he had married using a forged identity in Valsad.

“Since Daman and Diu were under Portugal rule, the natives of the Union territory can get Portuguese citizenship on producing some documents. To take advantage of the rule, the accused changed his identity and produced forged papers as son of a Daman resident,” Valsad superintendent of police Sunil Joshi told TOI.

Bhindiwala showed himself as son of a person who had died in 2014 and managed to get the passport from Portugal consulate in Goa. He also obtained a Portuguese citizen card and lived there for few months before returning to Valsad recently.

“We were working on the case for the last few days and following confirmation that he obtained the citizenship on forged identity, we arrested him. Police are now investigating that how the accused managed to get the forged papers from Daman,” Joshi added.

He had submitted forged papers of his parents being resident of Daman to get the Portuguese citizenship. When police checked with authorities in Daman. they came to know that the couple had no son with this name.

Almas alias Aadi Magan was staying in Batley of West Yorkshire in England. “Detailed interrogation of the accused can reveal how many more individuals have entered the UK using forged identity papers,” police said.