|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Saturday, 18 September 2004 |
 |
|
 |
News | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
25 remanded for having forged Lankan passports with British visas by Sarath Malalasekera Twenty five persons who attempted to travel on forged Sri Lankan passports to the UK via Maldives and a SriLankan Airlines official were remanded yesterday by the Negombo Magistrate. Six children who were with the 25 adults were handed over to the National Child Protection Authority. The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) also deployed a special team to trace a millionaire businessman in Colombo who is alleged to have attempted to send the 31 persons to the United Kingdom on forged N-Series Sri Lankan passports with British visas alleged to be genuine. CID investigations revealed that the businessman had collected fees ranging from Rs.1.7 million to Rs.2.5 million from each passenger. The CID is looking for another senior SriLankan officer alleged to have been the kingpin of the whole racket. According to investigations directed by a Senior Superintendent of the CID, the 31 persons had come to the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) apparently to go to the Maldives. They had cleared Immigration and were waiting to board the flight. Later a SriLankan Airlines officer had collected the passports from the 31 passengers and had given them forged Sri Lankan passports with British visas. The SriLankan Airlines officer had allegedly collected Rs.50,000 from each adult passenger. On a tip-off, SriLankan Airlines authorities had arrested and handed them over to the CID officials at the Bandaranaike International Airport with the forged passports and British visas. Investigators said that by any chance if they went to London, Sri Lankan authorities would have had to pay a fine of 3,000 pounds for each passenger. The SriLankan Airlines official working at the BIA was arrested in connection with this incident. The 25 adults who attempted to leave the country on forged passports were produced before the Negombo Magistrate and remanded pending the completion of investigations. The investigators are also trying to ascertain whether the 31 passengers' names had been included in the manifest of a UK-bound flight from Maldives. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
