Immigration officials at Mumbai Airport intercepted a woman posing as an Indian citizen while she was attempting to fly to Bangladesh with her eight-year-old daughter. The woman’s cover was blown when the child innocently revealed key details during routine questioning.
The incident occurred on the morning of June 24, when Champa Mandal (27), a resident of Navi Mumbai, arrived at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport with her daughter Hema. The duo was scheduled to fly to Dhaka on an Air India flight. At the immigration counter, Champa presented Indian passports and claimed they were going to Bangladesh for tourism.
However, immigration officials grew suspicious when they asked Champa for travel details such as hotel bookings and tourist sites in Bangladesh. She became nervous and started giving vague answers. Further suspicion arose when she produced her birth certificate as proof of Indian citizenship — a document Indian nationals rarely carry while travelling.
During the questioning, Hema innocently told the officers that they were heading to Bangladesh to meet their relatives. Officials then checked Champa’s mobile phone and found she had been in regular contact with people in Bangladesh, suggesting close familial ties.
According to a statement given by Immigration Officer Ganesh Gawli to Sahar Police, further investigation revealed that Champa is originally a Bangladeshi national who entered India in 2008. She married an Indian citizen in 2017 and had a daughter in 2021. Prior to that, in 2015, she had acquired a Bangladeshi passport from Dhaka. In 2019, she allegedly obtained an Indian passport fraudulently, and in 2024, she used forged documents to acquire an Indian passport for her daughter.
Following the revelations, Sahar Police registered a case against Champa Mandal — who is also known by the alias “City” — under relevant sections of the law based on a complaint filed by immigration officer Gawli. The child has been sent to a juvenile shelter home.
Authorities are now probing the case further to ascertain the full extent of the forgery and cross-border links.