Curtains come down on Nadiad man’s US sojourn

It was curtains for a Nadiad-based man at Sardarnagar police station, after he returned  from a five-year stay in the US, on Thursday. He was caught by immigration officials at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International (SVPI) Airport in the wee hours of Thursday for travelling on a fake passport for which he had paid Rs18 lakh to a Karnataka-based travel agent.

According to Sardarnagar police station officials, one Samip and his father Kiran Patel, residents of Nadiad, arrived at the city in a Qatar Airways flight (QR-282) at 3:30 am. During clearance, the immigration officials found something amiss about Samip's passport. Their hunch turned out to be true when it was found that Samip had gone to the US five years ago on a fake passport.

"Samip went to the US from Karnataka where he claims to have taken some dancing lessons. From there he went to Sri Lanka and then Singapore and finally the US. He bought someone else's passport by paying Rs18 lakh and pasted his picture on it. He sneaked into the US without any hitch," said an immigration official.

Samip stayed there for five years doing odd jobs including working as a music teacher along with his father Kiran Patel.

On Thursday, as he arrived at SVPI airport, his long journey ended as there were no stamps of his arrival or departure by US immigration officials -- which got him busted. According to immigration officials the father-son duo allegedly tried to bribe their way out when caught.

"We have booked him under IPC-468. We have also found that Samip's US journey was helped by a relative who is a travel agent, Harshad Patel - currently in the US. Now, we are trying to find the agent who sold the fake passport to Samip," said a senior Sardarnagar police official.