55-yr-old man held in Madhya Pradesh for using fake passport to settle in US

Indore: A 55-year-old man, who had allegedly obtained a fake passport to gain entry into America in the 1990s and later settled in that country, was arrested in Indore on Thursday, a police official said.

The accused, Aamir Ali Khairani, who came to India on April 24, was arrested following a tip-off, police said.

"Khairani, who hails from Indore, had obtained a fake passport from Hyderabad through an agent using forged documents in the name of Rajesh Agrawal," Amarendar Singh, Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) of Indore Crime Branch, told reporters.

"On the basis of that fake passport, he entered America in the 1990s to work in Texas, where he later settled down," he added.

According to Singh, during his interrogation, the accused told them that he has become a US citizen.

"Police are investigating that...We are also contacting the US Embassy as well as Hyderabad Passport Office from where he fraudulently obtained the fake passport," Singh said.

After settling down in the US, Khairani visited India four to five times. During these visits he met his relatives in Surat, Ahmedabad and Anand in Gujarat, the officer said.

Khairani had married a daughter of a Hyderabad-based businessman in 1986 and later went to the US with his father-in-law. "His brother-in-law had been living in America before that," the ASP said.

Police suspect that Khairani went to the US with the help of a human-trafficking gang.

Further investigation is on, he said.