Husband claims wife, lover forged passport for Australia jaunt

Pilibhit (Uttar Pradesh), Aug 30 (IANS) In a bizarre incident, a 36-year-old woman from Pilibhit allegedly took her paramour on a tour to Australia on a passport forged in her husband’s name in January.

The two were supposed to return in March but since all international passenger flights to India were suspended in the national lockdown, they got stranded and returned home only on August 24.

The woman’s husband, 46, a resident of Damgarhi village, who works in Mumbai, has filed a complaint with the police, accusing his wife of having an illicit relationship with the co-accused, Sandeep Singh, 36.

He has charged Sandeep with forging documents to obtain a passport in his name.

One of the couple’s children studies in Australia.

Superintendent of Police, Jai Prakash Yadav, has ordered registration of an FIR on the husband’s complaint and an investigation into the matter by a local intelligence unit (LIU).

According to the complainant, he has been working in Mumbai for the past 20 years and occasionally visits his wife, who lives in their farmhouse and looks after his ancestral land.

“When I returned to Pilibhit on May 18, my wife was not at home. I came to know from Sandeep’s family that both had gone to Australia. To find out whether Sandeep forged documents to obtain a passport in my name to visit Australia, I purposely applied for a passport on August 24 at the Bareilly-based passport office. My suspicion was ascertained by the passport authorities, who told me that a passport in my name had already been issued on February 2, 2019,” he said.

The SP said Gajraula police and LIU inspector Kanchan Rawat would focus their probe on how a passport in the name of the complainant was issued despite identity-checking at multiple levels.

–IANS

amita/dpb