BENGALURU: A 34-year-old Nepali woman heading from Bengaluru to Sharjah was caught by immigration officials at the Kempegowda International Airport for allegedly carrying a fake letter from the Nepal embassy. She has been booked under three sections of the Indian Penal Code and is in jail now.
According to airport police, Sita Singali arrived from Kathmandu on Saturday (October 29). She was heading to Sharjah by an Emirates flight the same night when immigration officials at the international departure zone took her into custody after checking her documents. Singali's passport was stamped with a 3-month visa to stay in Sharjah. It was accompanied by a letter from the Nepal embassy in New Delhi authorising her to stay in the United Arab Emirates.
"The letter immediately aroused suspicion among immigration officials as the word 'Embassy' in the letter was wrongly spelt as 'Emnassy'. On closer examination of the letter, they found the seal to be fake, as well as the signature signed below it," a top police official said. Singali was taken into custody. "She protested, stating that the letter was genuinely obtained from her country's embassy in India," he added.
The immigration department handed her over to the airport police. "She has been booked under Sections 420 (Cheating) and Sections 465 (Forgery) and 471 (Usage of a fraud document as a genuine one) of the Indian Penal Code," another police official said. Interrogation revealed that Sangli was educated up to Class V and worked at a flower market in Nepal. She was remanded to judicial custody. The airport police are in the process of writing to the Nepali embassy to ascertain the genuineness of her claim.