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Fake passports: 3 deported from Kuwait

KOCHI: Three passengers were detained at the Cochin International Airport by emigration authorities early on Wednesday, after they were deported from Kuwait while trying to board a flight to France. They are suspected to have committed passport forgery.

Emigration Superintendent of Police V.G. Babu said that the suspects were travelling on Mexican passports and had left Kochi on February 11. They were identified as Javier Santas Alberto, 20, Antonio Lopez Ernesto, 16, and Antonio Lopez Juvan, 42. Officials at Kuwait airport became suspicious when the trio failed to communicate in Spanish despite travelling on Mexican passports. From the passports, emigration officials found that the suspects had arrived at Delhi on January 23, with a visa said to be obtained from the Indian Embassy in Mexico. On cross-checking with officials at Delhi, the stampings on the passports were found to be forged. No such arrivals were reported on that day at Delhi airport.

The passengers had with them a piece of paper with a phone number in Afghanistan. Sources said that the detainees were “very fluent in Hindi,” adding that they could be Afghanis or Kashmiris.

Top intelligence agencies, including the Intelligence Bureau, and a Special Task Force from Delhi immediately rushed to the spot and began quizzing them. They were handed over to the local police.

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