Punjab: A 26-year-old faces charges of forging a fake passport to cover up travel history

Immigration authorities have arrested a 26-year-old woman from Punjab, Satveer Kaur, after they discovered tampering with her passport. Kaur, who was trying to travel to Toronto for a new job, raised suspicions when officials discovered discrepancies in her travel documents.

Reports indicate that after spending five years studying in Canada, Kaur returned to India to visit her family. However, as she was preparing to return to Toronto to work, immigration officers discovered that she had changed the dates on her passport. The edit was allegedly done to hide the actual date of her arrival in India from her family.

Authorities suspect that Satveer Kaur changed her passport to hide a meeting with a male friend before heading to her parents’ house. talking to Times of IndiaA police department spokesman explained: “She said her parents were not aware of her arrival on September 28. She did not want her parents to know about it because she had gone to meet her friend.”

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

Earlier this year, a similar incident occurred involving a 25-year-old student who tried to hide details of a trip to Thailand by tearing out pages from her passport. The student, identified as Srishti Jatul, was scheduled to travel to Singapore for an internship sponsored by her college in Worli. However, her plans were foiled when immigration officials at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport discovered the missing pages in her passport, leading to her immediate arrest.

Speaking to the Indian Express, a police officer explained: “Her college was sending her to Singapore for internship, and she was afraid that she might lose the internship if the college found out about her trip to Thailand. So, she tore the pages of her passport acknowledging her trip to Thailand.”

Shrishti missed her college exams due to illness. The assistant immigration officer, Sujit Patel, indicated that her fear of exposure led her to tamper with this important travel document. As a result, the student was booked under Section 12 of the Passport Act and Section 318 (4) (cheating and breach of trust) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.