Man impersonating student to board flight to Canada held at Delhi airport

 A 23-year-old man's desire to fly to Cana for a so called better life and job opportunities was cut short after he was caught by immigration officials at Indira Gandhi International Airport here on suspicion of impersonation and handed over to police, officials said on Sunday.

Mehtab Singh, who hails from Rawana Ghasi vill in Rampur district of Uttar Presh, was travelling on passport and student visa of someone else, police said, ding he has been arrested and taken into two-day police remand for furr investigation.

Police said Singh was caught travelling on original passport and student visa of one Aitya Singh, a resident of Udham Singh Nagar district in Uttarakhand.

incident took place on intervening night of September 17-18 when Singh was intercepted at Terminal-3 of Indira Gandhi International Airport here while he intended to depart to Toronto, Cana.

But during checking, immigration officials found his activities suspicious and on cross-checking, his appearance did t exactly match with photo on original passport as shown by him, a senior police officer said.

Though Singh looked similar to man whose photo appeared on passport with kind of mustache and beard, but when officials asked him to remove his face mask, he was caught and handed over to police on suspicion of impersonation. On complaint received from immigration officials, Deputy Commissioner of olice (IGI Airport) Rajeev Ranjan said a case was registered under section 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 120 B (punishment for criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code and and relevant sections.

officer said accused was arrested during course of investigation for impersonating as someone else by travelling on his passport and student visa. During interrogation, initially Singh did t disclose his real identity and claimed he was going to Cana to pursue his furr studies but when confronted with passport and or documents, he disclosed his real identity as Mehtab Singh and revealed that he intended to go abro in search of a better life and job opportunities, an investigating officer said.

When asked about his source of documents, Singh disclosed that while pursuing his final year course in Bachelor of Arts from a university in Uttarakhand, he came in contact with an nt named Balwant Singh who promised to send him abro illegally, officer said.

accused fixed a deal with Balwant who arranged him an original passport and student visa in name of one Aitya Singh, who is a resident of Udham Singh Nagar in Uttarakhand, he ded. As per ir deal, accused Singh was supposed to give Rs 20 lakh to nt after he landed in Cana, officer said Police said accused has been taken in two days police remand and will be furr interrogated to verify and ascertain claims me by him.

Furr investigation is underway and passports and or documents being carried by accused have been seized, y said.

nt -- Balwant Singh -- has been absconding, police said, ding efforts are being me to trace him. Last year in September, a 32-year-old Gujarati man was arrested after he was caught by CISF personnel at Delhi airport for allegedly impersonating an octogenarian passenger by issuing a fake passport. Also in September last year, a 68-year-old man disguised as an octogenarian was caught at Delhi airport after he landed from Hong Kong with a fake passport.

Gurdip Singh, a resident of Moga in Punjab, h used fake passport and a fake name -- Karnail Singh -- to get Permanent Residence ID of Hong Kong.