Spoke Hindi, But No Bengali Accent: How Passenger With Fake Passport Was Caught At Delhi Airport

News18

04-07-2025

Last Updated:
According to immigration officials, it was the man's use of Hindi - not the fact that he spoke it, but how he spoke it that raised eyebrows
What started as a routine immigration check at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport turned into a dramatic bust involving forged documents, a fake identity, and a foreign national posing as an Indian citizen. The trigger? A few suspicious sentences in Hindi.
The startling episode unfolded at Terminal 3 of IGI Airport when a passenger scheduled to fly to Kabul on Afghan Airlines flight FG-312 approached the Bureau of Immigration counter after completing his baggage check-in. Presenting an Indian passport that identified him as 'Khairuddin" from Murshidabad, West Bengal, the man appeared calm and cooperative, until he spoke.
According to immigration officials, it was the man's use of Hindi; not the fact that he spoke it, but how he spoke it that raised eyebrows. Officers expected a hint of Bengali cadence typical of someone from West Bengal. Instead, what they heard was heavily accented Hindi, unusual enough to spark immediate suspicion.
Protocol required further questioning, and biometric verification quickly revealed the truth – the man was not an Indian national at all. He was identified as Wafa Malik Din, an Afghan citizen who had allegedly entered India in August 2019 using a genuine Afghan passport.
Further investigation uncovered that Wafa had never returned to Afghanistan after his arrival. Instead, over the years, he managed to illegally obtain Indian identity documents with the help of local contacts. Using those forged documents, he successfully applied for and received an Indian passport, the same one he attempted to use to fly back to Kabul.
The deception unravelled entirely at the airport counter, where the man's inability to convincingly impersonate an Indian, linguistically and legally, led to his downfall. Authorities recovered both the forged Indian passport and a copy of his original Afghan passport during the enquiry.
Following his confession, Wafa was arrested by the IGI Airport Police and has since been remanded to judicial custody.
The incident has triggered a review by security and immigration agencies, with officials now re-examining procedures for verifying identity and language cues, particularly in high-risk international sectors.
First Published:
July 04, 2025, 17:44 IST