Three Nigerians held for making fake passports

Police here Thursday claimed to have busted a gang of forgers with the arrest of three Nigerians who would prepare fake passports of African countries and forge Indian visas for overstaying in the country.

Kelvin alias Eboy, 28, and Ibitoroko Melville, 53, were arrested March 19 following a tip-off, while Martins Cletus Okechukwu alias Charles, 36, was nabbed March 21 based on their information.

Police recovered 20 filled and blank passports of Ghana, South Africa, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

Some blank and affixed forged Indian visa stickers, seven rubber stamps of arrival and departure of immigration of Indian and Nigerian airports, stamp pads, papers, CPUs and pen drive were also found in their possession.

"We got information that Kelvin and Melville were running a racket of fake Indian visa stickers and fake passports of different African countries," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Sanjeev Kumar Yadav.

"The duo was selling them to citizens of various African countries for facilitating their illegal stay in India even after expiry of their Indian visas," he said.

On March 19, Melville was arrested from Dwarka area when he was exchanging fake passports and visas with Kelvin.

They disclosed they were involved in the trade for a long time.

"They were providing fake visas and passports for money to several African nationals to facilitate their stay in India even after expiry of their original visas," said Yadav.

They told police they have other African associates, whose names were Charles, Stanley and Tenten, operating from Delhi, National Capital Region (NCR) and Tamil Nadu.

Okechukwu told police he used to provide African clients to Kelvin and Melville and charged commission from them and the clients.

Efforts are on to apprehend the other associates, police said.