Bangladeshi man held in Mumbai for trying to fly to Rome with 'Indian' passport

A 32-year-old Bangladesh national, who claimed to be a Buddhist monk, has been arrested here for trying to travel to Rome on an Indian passport that he had obtained by providing fake documents, an official said on Friday.

Bipon Anil Barua, a resident of Bandarban in Bangladesh, was apprehended at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport on Wednesday night, the official said.

Barua was to fly to Rome via Muscat from Mumbai in the early hours of Thursday. When an immigration officer keyed in his passport details in their system, he found that a Look Out Circular (LOC) has been issued against him by the Foreigners Registration Office (FRRO), Mumbai, the official said. An LOC is a notice which prevents a person from leaving the country.

According to remarks on the LOC, Barua is a Bangladeshi passport holder. He used fake papers to fraudulently acquire an Indian passport.

Barua told officials that he is a Buddhist monk and came to India from the neighbouring country via the Haridaspur border in 2015 to propagate Buddhism, he said.

During his stay in Chhattisgarh capital Raipur in 2016, Barua said he procured an Indian passport with the help of bogus papers. Since then, the official said, Barua used the Indian passport to visit Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, and the United Kingdom.

Immigration officials also recovered PAN and Aadhaar cards from him, he said. Barua was taken to the Sahar police station where a case was registered against him under Indian Penal Code sections 420 (cheating), 465 (punishment for forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), and 471 (using fraudulent document as genuine) and the Passports Act. The passenger was then placed under arrest, the official added.