81-year-old Ahmedabad couple caught for aiding illegal immigration

AHMEDABAD: It would seem improbable that one could travel on somebody else's boarding pass, given the foolproof checks conducted by airlines to authenticate the identity of every flier.
But recently, officials of Indira Gandhi Airport (IGI) in New Delhi foiled an illegal immigration bid facilitated by an 81-year-old Ahmedabad-based couple, who exchanged boarding passes of their Toronto flight with two Colombo-bound fliers from Punjab and Haryana. The couple was allegedly paid Rs 2 lakh each by a human smuggler for boarding pass swaps.
A team of Delhi police visited Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar recently to investigate the case involving Ramanlal Patel and his wife Shantaben, both residents of Asarwa. The couple allegedly exchanged their boarding passes with Harsimranjit Singh, 28, of Punjab's Gurdaspur, and Prianka Singh, 23, from Karnal in Haryana.
According to sources, the couple handed over boarding passes to the two passengers near an aerobridge at IGI at the behest of a human smuggler. Had the plan succeeded, the two passengers from Punjab and Haryana would have flown to Toronto and later entered the US with help from agents.
"The case was registered on April 4. The Patel couple got their clearance at the IGI airport to travel to Toronto while Prianka and Harsimranjit cleared all necessary checks to travel to Colombo," said an officer of Delhi Police.
Near the aerobridge leading to the two flights, the Patels exchanged their boarding passes with the two passengers. However, when Prianka and Harsimranjit were about to board the flight to Toronto, an alert official at the airport saw them looking nervous. Their body language got him suspicious and when he checked CCTV footage, he detected the boarding pass swaps.
Old couple booked for cheating
An officer of IGI airport police said that the Patels used to travel to Canada often to meet their family members and had all the necessary travel documents with them. A human smuggler, who knew this couple, promised them Rs 2 lakh each if they could help him send Harsimranjit and Prianka illegally to Canada.
Sources in Delhi Police said that the Patel couple agreed to help in lieu of money without realizing its consequences. All the four passengers have been booked under the charges of cheating, forgery, producing forged documents as genuine, criminal conspiracy and criminal act done by several persons in furtherance of common intention under the IPC.
Police said that several agents from Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and Delhi were also involved in the case.