PANJIM: The Old Goa police on Tuesday arrested Albino Sequeira of Corlim on the charge of cheating people by promising to make forged documents and Portuguese passports.
The police have been on his trail since registering a case against him and his wife Evon in May this year. Abdul Khan, a resident of Gogol-Margao had complained that from July 2021, Sequeira and his wife allegedly received money from him and others on the pretext of providing Portuguese passports and forged birth certificates. But after receiving the money, the couple allegedly deceived them and cheated them without providing any such passport. Khan paid Rs two lakh to the couple, police said.
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According to the police, Sequeira was operating for the last eight to 10 years and had set up his own mechanism to make Portuguese birth registration and Portuguese passports. Also he was making himself instrumental in providing jobs abroad mainly in European and American countries.
Though there are reports that initially he had sent some youths abroad, for the last four to five years, the accused took lakhs of rupees from nearly 50-60 genuine people on the pretext of making Portuguese passports and providing jobs abroad.
Despite taking money in advance from the clients, he delayed the delivery of fake passports.
Old Goa police were on his trail. They found that he was travelling in other States and also was shifting his residences in those States. He had made his ancestral house into a fortress, guarded with dogs to prevent entry of the clients, who could approach him.
The accused had recently targeted youth from other States eager to work on cruise boats.
The Goa Police have appealed to the people not to fall prey to such fake job and passport rackets and not to part away with their hard earned money with these scams and other fake schemes.
PSI Edvin Dias is conducting investigations under the guidance of Old Goa PI Satish Padwalkar.
