Nepal national set to board flight to Vietnam held with fake Indian documents

A 25-year-old Nepali national has been arrested for allegedly trying to board a flight to Vietnam on the basis of illegally procured documents that showed him as an Indian citizen. The man, Vishal Thapa, possessed an Indian passport and also a transit document issued as a passport for seafarers. He was nabbed at Mumbai International Airport on Feb 22 before he could board a flight to Vietnam where he was slated to join a Merchant Navy Ship.
Officials of Sahar police station said that the man possessed “fake” documents that showed his place of birth as ‘Nhave in Thane district’, but his bluff was called when immigration officials also found a ‘Certificate of Nepali Citizenship’ (7701800475) issued in his name by the Nepal govt.
Immigration wing in-charge Avinash Kumar’s investigation revealed that Thapa had secured the Indian passport using a Thane birth certificate and Class 12 certificate, purportedly from Mumbai. An officer at Sahar police station said that no agreement exists between Nepal and India, which permits dual citizenship. Thapa’s Nepalese citizenship certificate confirms his birthplace as East of Bardaghat, Nepal, the officer said.
Immigration officer Sumit Kumar stopped Thapa for a check for his Vietnam flight. Counter officer Nitin Jagtap (52) stated: “I grew suspicious when I noticed the flyer’s details showing his birth place as Nhave in Thane while his address at Panvel in Navi Mumbai. I alerted the immigration wing in-charge and the duty officer.”
Though Thapa insisted he was born in Thane district in 1999 after his parents relocated to Mumbai for work, officials found his Nepali Citizen Certificate on his cellphone. A police officer explained that Thapa used his Class XII certificate to obtain the Indian Passport and seafarer’s passport, to use these for employment on a Vietnam-bound vessel.
In June 2023, authorities had arrested a 50-year-old Nepali national, Maniratna Bhandari, for multiple trips between Mauritius and Mumbai from 2012 to 2022 using a fraudulently obtained Indian Passport from 1997. Bhandari, originally from Lumbini, Nepal, had moved to Mumbai in November 1977 before relocating to Mauritius as domestic help. He was apprehended while attempting to fly to Mauritius using an Overseas Citizens of India card acquired in 2007.
A Sahar police station officer confirmed the seizure of his documents and pending court-directed actions, with notifications sent to Mumbai’s regional passport office and the Nepal Embassy. Police investigations revealed that Bhandari had obtained his Indian passport in 1997 through a hotel customer in Mahim, who charged Rs 3,000 for arranging forged documents. His subsequent overseas citizenship document acquisition in 2007 facilitated multiple journeys between Mauritius and various Indian cities, including Mumbai.