KOCHI: Two foreigners who used fake passports and overstayed in India for years after expiry of their visas have been arrested in Kochi.
The Cheranalloor police had taken Cassandra Drammesh, 27, of Gambia and Eunice Wambui, 34, of Senegal into custody from a hotel in Ponekkara on Wednesday night following an alert from the Foreign Regional Registration Officer (FRRO) and subsequent verification. The women have been booked under The Foreigners Act, 1946, and The Passports Act, 1967. Their arrests were recorded and they were sent to judicial custody on Thursday.
Police officers said the duo had taken a room at the hotel after submitting photocopies of two passports.
When the FRRO contacted the hotel as part of collecting details about foreigners staying in Kochi, the management said the women had submitted photocopies of their passports.“The FRRO contacted us to carry out verification of the documents submitted by the women. We reached the hotel and interviewed them. They said they had lost their passports and possessed only photocopies,” said an officer.
Doubtful about the truth of their statements, the police decided to shift the women to the FRRO office for verification. The office examined the passports and found them fake. A verification of their fingerprints confirmed this.
“Cassandra submitted the photocopy of a passport issued to a woman Allen Nammanda of Uganda. During interrogation, she revealed her actual name and citizenship. Eunice possessed the copies of a Kenyan citizen’s passport with the same name. Her interrogation revealed she was actually from Senegal,” said the officer.
A probe revealed that Cassandra came to India in 2019 on a nine-month visiting visa. She stayed back, remaining undetected for years. Eunice arrived in 2018 and stayed here illegally even after her visa expired. The police have launched a further probe into their stay in Kochi.
“The investigation revealed that they lived in various parts of the city on the fake passport,” a police officer said.