The airport witnessed 1,611 cases followed by Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) with 1,359 cases.
Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport has earned the dubious distinction of having the maximum number of passport and visa-related forgery cases across all airports in the country between 2008 and 2010.
The airport witnessed 1,611 cases followed by Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) with 1,359 cases, according to a survey by the Zee Research Group. Chennai, Amritsar and Kolkata are next with 624, 190 and 96 cases respectively.
Statistics collected from the home ministry show that the number of fake passport and visa-related forgery cases has increased by 13.8% between 2008 and 2010. The figure was 1,246 in 2008; 1,292 in 2009 and 1,419 in 2010.
What has left officials worried is that the Mumbai airport also tops the list in terms of visa and passport-related cheating by foreigners (557). Delhi is second with 285 cases. It is followed by Chennai (120), Kolkata (26) and Amritsar (21).
“We see at least five forgery cases of visas and fake passports every week at the international airport. Since Mumbai is the financial capital, people come here on fake visas,” said a senior police officer from the Foreigner Regional Registration Office (FRRO). “A lot of foreigners come to Mumbai on tourist visas and then settle here to earn money.”
Delhi’s IGI tops the list as far as forgery cases done by Indians are concerned. With 1,074 cases in three years, it is just ahead of Mumbai (1,054 cases). Chennai ranks third with 504 cases while Amritsar and Kolkata are next with 169 and 76 cases respectively.
FRRO officials attribute the rise in the number of cheating cases to an increase in the number of passengers using the Mumbai airport.
“Around 38,000 passengers use the Mumbai international airport every day. The most number of cheating cases are recorded at night as foreign flights arrive then and the traffic is high,” the officer said. “There has been an increase in the number of airlines, too, and that has also contributed to the rising number of passengers.”
Stating that people have become smart, the officer said it becomes difficult to nab offenders.
“People travel with chemical copies of visas and passports which look like originals. Our officers are doing a good job, but it gets difficult for new recruits to catch offenders due to the quality of forged documents,” the officer said.
Airport officials said most Indians involved in cheating cases are those returning from Dubai and other Gulf countries.
“The maximum number of cheating cases were of Indians whose passports were taken by their employers in Gulf countries. People who want to return to India then create passports with different personal details,” the officer said.
While they go scot-free in Mumbai at times, it is difficult for them to get away in Dubai because of the Iris scan.
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