Pak national gets 7yrs RI for procuring Indian passport

NEW DELHI: A Pakistani national, already facing jail term in an espionage case, was on Monday sentenced to seven years rigorous imprisonment by a court here for obtaining an Indian passport on the basis of fake documents.

"I hereby sentence Munir Ahmed for the offence of cheating for obtaining an Indian passport on the basis of fake identity documents," Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Kamini Lau said in her order.

The ACMM also sentenced his accomplices Munney Khan and Manish Chaudhary to five years and two years prison term respectively for their complicity in the offence.

All three were sentenced under various provisions of the IPC and the Indian Passports Act.

Ahmed, in 2003, was convicted under various provisions of the Official Secrets Act by a Jaipur court in Rajasthan for leaking defence secrets to his Pakistan-based bosses.

He is serving a jail term of seven years in the espionage case there.

As per the prosecution, Ahmed, a native of Chak in Rahimyakhan, Pakistan, sneaked to India through the Nepal border in 1997 and stayed for some time at Tundla in Uttar Pradesh.

Later, he took on a new name, Mahendra Singh Chaher, and shifted to Delhi where he came in close contact with co-accused Khan, a resident of Firozabad and Chaudhary, an official working with Gurgaon-based Citi Land Travels.

Ahmed had applied for the passport in Delhi and submitted a fake ration card and other documents. He also procured one on the basis of these fake documents, according to the prosecution.