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ABN397 · Member Joined: 27 Dec 2006 Posts: 113 Location: India

This thread about the MP being caught for people smuggling has started in non-aviation, but probably deserves to be here.

As you know a number of other MPs from various parties are believed to be involved in similar cases. Let us however concentrate on the technical aspects.

This venture may well have succeeded if it was not for an unexpected mishap. Some other lady on that flight misplaced her passport and the AI staff at the boarding gate started questioning all ladies who were boarding the flight. When this lady did not give a coherent reply, a closer look was taken at her passport which seemed to show the face was not quite matching.

Then the "family" of three were pulled up. It was immediately noticed that apart from the mismatch between face and passport photo, the passports even had an ARRIVAL stamp of Delhi airport as well as the departure stamp. You can figure out why this was done.

This clearly shows forgery of the immigration stamps (or connivance which is more likely)

A set of three other passports was seized from Mr Katara.

It is also interesting to know that the immigration counters at Delhi are manned by the Delhi police. In most Western countries there are people from the immigration department (or other similar bodies like the Department of Homeland Security in the US).

Finally it is interesting to know that the lady's family had paid Rs 30 lakhs as a "service charge" to be smuggled to Toronto. This seems strange as this much money should have been enough to "purchase" a green card or even a foreign passport. Those who have lived in the US or Canada for a while will be aware of this. Some years ago it was said that an apparently genuine green card could be obtained in the US for around 10,000 USD-do not ask whether it was really genuine or merely a good forgery.

(The above is collected from a number of reports, so there is no suitable link)

malQ · Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 9:04 pm Post subject:

What I learnt was that the CISF guards (one of whom was a Sikh) got suspicious and started talking with the lady in Punjabi, and when she responded, they went and did some smart footwork of their own.

Here it is important to be aware of the dynamics at International Airports between Airline staff, protocol staff, AAI, Immigration-IB/local Police, Customs, CISF and plain-clothes various.

If you want to understand kabutar-baji then study the report on the Saudia mid-air collision over Charkhi Dadri - and see how many people were simply not traceable basis documents.

I wrote a comment in the CISF guest book at DEL dep 1-A earlier today, and complimented them on their role in catching the VIP (Very Important Pimp).

stealthpilot · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 2325 Location: BLR, DXB

I agree, great job in catching him!

However can someone explain what exactly happened (I have read the other discussion)

How did they get past emigration in the first place? A diplomatic passport gives you some advantages, but how did 3 of them manage to get to the gate without detection. Are some officers in the Delhi police (who work in immigration/emigration) part of this scam?
I'm not too sure how the dynamics play out, but I fail to see how this could happen.
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