Immigration officials at Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport in Lucknow detained a 32-year-old Nepalese national early on Wednesday, October 28, after suspecting that he was travelling on an Indian passport obtained fraudulently, The Times of India reported. Hindi news outlet Bharat Samachar also reported the same day, in a post on X, that a Nepali youth had been arrested at Lucknow airport over an allegedly fake passport and that an FIR had been lodged at Sarojini Nagar police station on the immigration team's complaint.
Source: The Times of India (via The Crypto Times)
According to the report, the man reached the immigration counter at around 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday for departure clearance, reportedly for a flight to Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. Officials questioned his nationality during routine checks, and he reportedly told them that he was a Nepali citizen.
The Times of India identified the man as Dinesh Khadka, who was allegedly travelling under the identity of Dilip Kumar, a resident of Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh. Documents recovered from him reportedly identified him as Dinesh Khadka, born in 1994 and residing in Ward 10 of Lamkichuha municipality in Nepal's Kailali district, and included a Nepali citizenship certificate and a photocopy of a PAN card.
Following a complaint by Nagendra Kumar Singh, a junior immigration officer posted at Lucknow airport, Sarojini Nagar police registered a case against Khadka on Wednesday evening. According to the report, the FIR cites Sections 337, 339 and 340(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, relating to alleged forgery and the use of forged documents as genuine, Section 12(1)(b) of the Passports Act, 1967, and Section 22 of the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025. The allegations have not been tested in court, and no court proceedings were reported.
Khadka was also named in an investigation launched in January 2022 by Nepal's Department of Revenue Investigation into alleged illegal cryptocurrency and foreign-exchange transactions reportedly worth about NPR 37.64 crore, in which three other family members, including his father Nara Bahadur Khadka, were also named. The available reporting does not establish any connection between the Nepal investigation and the Lucknow passport case, and the current status of the Nepal probe is not clear.