Team Herald
PANJIM: The Mopa police on Wednesday arrested a 25-year-old Bangladesh national and a Buddhist monk while trying to travel to the United Kingdom on an Indian passport that he had obtained by providing fake documents at Nashik in Maharashtra.
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The police gave the name of the accused as Shourab Barua.
Superintendent of Police (SP), North, Akshat Kaushal, IPS said that Barua was arrested at the Mopa international airport after the Bureau of Immigration apprehended him at the departure immigration, while trying to board the UK-bound flight on Wednesday around noon.
The Bureau of Immigration did research and found that he was travelling with a fake Indian passport.
The police later revealed that Barua infiltrated from Chittagong to West Bengal in 2021 on a tourist Visa and claimed to be a Buddhist monk. From Bengal, he travelled to Gaya, a Buddhist pilgrimage site in Bihar. From Gaya, with the help of some local contact he travelled to Nashik where he obtained a fake Indian passport.
The Goa Police and other central agencies are interrogating the accused to find out the involvement of those who helped him to obtain the forged Indian passport, on which he travelled to Thailand and Cambodia in 2022.
The police have also found the Aadhaar Card, birth certificate and PAN Card in his name as Shourab Bikash Chowdhury of Cidco Nashik, Maharashtra.
SP Kaushal said that Barua arrived in Goa from Mumbai by a bus on December 9 to board the flight to the UK, to attend a seminar on social sciences. Next day, he visited the Buddha statue situated at Caurem in Quepem taluka and also stayed in a hotel at Margao.
The Mopa police have registered a case against Barua under Section 7 (1) (3) (iii) of Foreigners Order 1948, Section 14 of Foreigners Act 1946, Section 3(a), 6(a) of Passport Entry into India Rule 1950, Section 3 and 4 of Passport Entry of India Act 1920 and Sections 212, 336(2), 336(3), 337, 339, 340(2) and 318(4) BNS.
PSI Ashish B Porob is conducting further investigation under the guidance of Mopa PI Narayan Chimulkar.
The monk has been remanded in two days in police custody by Pernem JMFC.
