Punjab: 26-year-old faces charges for forged passport to cover travel history

A 26-year-old woman from Punjab, Satveer Kaur, was arrested by immigration authorities after they detected tampering in her passport. Kaur, who was attempting to travel to Toronto for a new job, raised suspicions when officials identified discrepancies in her travel documents.

Reports indicate that after spending five years studying in Canada, Kaur had returned to India to visit her family. However, as she prepared to fly back to Toronto for work, immigration officers discovered that she had altered the dates in her passport. The modification was allegedly made to conceal her actual date of arrival in India from her family.

Authorities suspect that Satveer Kaur altered her passport to hide a meeting with a male friend before heading to her parents’ home. Speaking to The Times of India, a police department spokesperson explained, “She said that her parents were unaware about her arrival on Sept 28. She did not want her parents to know about it as she had gone to meet her friend."

After the investigation, Kaur was charged with cheating and forgery for tampering with her passport.

Earlier this year, a comparable incident involved a 25-year-old student who attempted to conceal details of a trip to Thailand by tearing pages from her passport. The student, identified as Shrishti Ghatol, was set to travel to Singapore for an internship sponsored by her college in Worli. However, her plans were thwarted when immigration officials at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport detected the missing pages in her passport, leading to her immediate detention.

Speaking to the Indian Express, a police officer explained, “Her college was sending her to Singapore for an internship, and she was scared that if the college learnt about her Thailand trip, she might lose the internship. So, she tore the pages of her passport acknowledging her Thailand trip."

Shrishti had skipped her college exams, citing illness as the reason. Assistant Immigration Officer Sujit Patil noted that her fear of being exposed led her to tamper with such an important travel document. Consequently, the student was booked under Section 12 of the Passports Act and Section 318(4) (cheating and dishonesty) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.