Family from Dingucha tries to fly to UK on forged passports, stopped at airport

Ahmedabad: The deaths of a family of four from Dingucha just metres from the the US-Canada border in 2022 may have headlined the perils of illegal immigration, but have failed to be a deterrent for more people from the village choosing the unlawful route. Another Dingucha family, guided by human smugglers, was caught on Oct 16 trying to fly to London via Dubai on a UK visa allegedly obtained using fake immigration stamps.
While an immigration officer on duty had filed a complaint of illegal immigration against the man, Narendrasinh Vaghela and his agent Kalpesh Patel, the Special Operations Group (SOG) on Monday took over the case after probe revealed forgery, and filed a fresh case against the two. The elaborate plan began to unravel at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International airport's immigration counter on Oct 16 when the family of four arrived for their flight to London via Dubai.Kripalsinh Digvijaysinh Chudasma, the immigration officer on duty, became suspicious when Vaghela, a resident of Vaghela Vas in Diguncha village of Kalol, presented his Indian passport no. U-3768571 for clearance. The passport had two sets of departure and arrival stamps — dated Feb 5 and Feb 14 , 2024 — but both from different airports, Turkey's Istanbul and Mumbai. Checks revealed a similar pattern in the passports of his wife, daughter and son.
While answering Chudasma's queries, Vaghela said the family had returned from Turkey on Feb 15. The central immigration database showed otherwise. According to Chudasma's complaint, the Vaghelas had flown to Istanbul on Feb 5 but were deported immediately, probably due to discrepancies in their documents, and had landed in India the next day.
While it is not clear if Vaghela's agent removed the pages carrying the Feb 6 arrival stamp from the passports, Vaghela's explanation for the deportation was Turkish authorities growing suspicious of his beard, while clearing his family. More questioning revealed that Vaghela had handed the passports to Patel, who runs a travel agency in Gandhinagar, for a UK visa. Patel allegedly returned the passports with fake Mumbai arrival stamps after confirming the UK visa. The authenticity of the Mumbai airport stamps was verified with the Maharashtra Mumbai immigration department, which said that the Feb 14 stamp was counterfeit, leading to a fresh case against Vaghela and Patel, this time by SOG police inspector, S A Gohil.
The case has been registered under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Sections 336(2) (forgery), 338 (forgery of valuable security, will), 331(3) (house trespass), 340(2) (forged document or electronic record), and 54 (abettor present when offence is committed).