Immigration officials Thursday caught six Andhra Pradesh-based women at the Mumbai International Airport for allegedly trying to fly to Muscat by concealing their details. The authorities have found that the details on their passport were erased so that the women could be sent abroad on tourist visas.
Based on the complaint of immigration officials, the Sahar police arrested Venkata Laxmi Ullithula, 30, Khadeerunnisa Shaikh, 32, Munemma Sunkara, 37, Rubina Syed, 33, Kumari Tellakula, 33, and Kalyani Engisetti, 32.
According to the police, the six women were planning to travel by Air India flight IX-235 to Muscat. Immigration officials raised suspicion as the passports of the women were found tampered with. They said that on certain pages of the passports, some stamps were forcefully erased.
During the preliminary inquiry, it was revealed that all six women hail from different places in Andhra Pradesh and wanted to travel to Kuwait to get housemaid jobs. An agent is learnt to have helped them get an employment visa in Kuwait.
However, as POE (Protector of Emigrants) clearance was compulsory to go to Kuwait as their passports were of ECR (Emigration Check Required) status, they sought help from the agent again.
“The women said that the agent, using some chemicals, erased Kuwait’s visa stamps from their passports and then helped them get tourist visas and flight tickets to Muscat. From Muscat, they planned to go to Kuwait,” the complainant immigration officer stated in the FIR.
“Due to some reasons, the accused women wanted to bypass the POE clearance and, with the help of the agent, erased Kuwait’s employment visa stamps from their passports and tried to travel using the same ‘tampered passport’; hence, they have been booked under relevant sections of the Passport Act and Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for cheating and forgery,” said a police sub-inspector from Sahar police station.
The women were subsequently produced before the court. They were sent to judicial custody, and are currently lodged in the Byculla women’s prison.
