Lucknow: Immigration officials at Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport in Lucknow detained a 32-year-old Nepalese national early Wednesday after he allegedly tried to leave India for the Middle East using a fraudulently obtained Indian passport and posing as an Indian citizen, police said.The accused was identified as Dinesh Khadka, a resident of Ward 10 of Lamkichuha municipality in Nepal’s Kailali district. Officials said he was attempting to board Air India Express flight IX-226 to Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates around 1.30 am when immigration staff became suspicious about his nationality during routine clearance.According to the FIR, Khadka was travelling under the assumed identity of Dilip Kumar from Lakhimpur Kheri.During detailed scrutiny and questioning, he allegedly admitted he was a Nepalese citizen. Officials said they recovered documents indicating his real identity, including a Nepalese citizenship certificate, a photocopy of his PAN card and other travel-related records.Immigration officials alleged Khadka had obtained an Indian passport by concealing his actual nationality and using forged or misleading documents, enabling him to present himself as an Indian national while travelling abroad.Khadka’s name has figured in an earlier investigation in Nepal into an alleged illegal cryptocurrency and foreign exchange racket. Nepal’s department of revenue investigation had probed the case in Jan 2022, in which Khadka and three family members, including his father Nara Bahadur Khadka, were named over transactions totalling about Nepalese Rs 37.64 crore. Officials said it was not immediately clear whether the attempted departure to Sharjah was directly linked to that probe.Following a complaint by junior immigration officer Nagendra Kumar Singh, Sarojini Nagar police registered an FIR on Wednesday evening.
