Crime Branch Busts Fake Passport Racket Used for Illegal Migration to US and Canada

The Mumbai Police Crime Branch has busted a human trafficking and fake passport racket that allegedly used forged documents to obtain passports and facilitate illegal migration to the United States and Canada, primarily for individuals from Gujarat.

Investigators from Crime Branch Unit 8 have arrested two suspects: Imtiaz Rafiq Qureshi, 45, and Shakeel Sharif Shaikh, 42. Police are searching for more than a dozen other suspects, including Aslam Panchal, who has previously been arrested in more than eight human trafficking cases over the past decade.

The accused have been booked under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita related to forgery, cheating, and the use of forged documents, alongside provisions of the Passport Act.

According to police officials, the racket surfaced earlier this month when the Central Intelligence Unit received confidential information indicating that Qureshi and 71-year-old Abdul Karim Abdul Ghaffur Hamdare were involved in dispatching passports overseas using forged documents and stolen identities.

Following the tip-off, police approached the Regional Passport Offices in Mumbai and Ahmedabad to carry out technical verification of suspicious passports. The scrutiny revealed that several passports had been procured using fake bank statements, PAN cards, and other forged identity papers.

Investigators stated that Hamdare helped create a fake passport for Kanchanben from Gujarat in the name of Thane resident Dilshad Hamdare to facilitate her travel to Canada for financial gain. In another instance, a passport issued in the name of 34-year-old Mittalben Nikulkumar Patel was allegedly linked to a passport created under the name of Nayab Imtiaz Qureshi. Police also found that passports had been secured in the names of children by misrepresenting their identities.

Other individuals allegedly aided by the syndicate to migrate abroad using forged documentation include Aslam Shaikh and Khorabhai Patel. Mittalben reportedly identified Khorabhai Patel as the person who prepared passports using forged paperwork and arranged their dispatch to the US in exchange for money.

Shaikh was arrested on August 3 from the Andheri railway station area for his alleged role in producing fake passports. Following his interrogation, police conducted a search at his residence in Bharat Nagar, Bandra-Kurla Complex, leading to the seizure of multiple passports, bank documents, Aadhaar and PAN cards belonging to Shaikh and his family members, as well as a mobile phone.

Police stated that technical analysis has confirmed links between the arrested suspects and other members of the syndicate. The investigation remains ongoing to uncover the full extent of the network, track financial transactions, and identify how many fraudulent passports were used for illegal migration.