Bhubaneswar airport passport fraud investigators are tracing two alleged agents after police arrested a 34-year-old Uttar Pradesh man accused of obtaining and using three Indian passports under different names and dates of birth. The arrest was made at Biju Patnaik International Airport after immigration officials detected discrepancies during a routine check of passengers arriving from Bangkok on Saturday.
The accused, identified by police as Brijesh Kumar from Azamgarh district, allegedly held passports issued in the names of Dalbir Yadav, Brijesh Kumar and Brijesh Prasad. According to Airfield police station inspector-in-charge Rabindra Meher, the documents carried different dates of birth but listed the same residential address in Azamgarh.
“During verification, officials found that Brijesh had secured three passports from the Regional Passport Office in Lucknow using different identities,” Meher said, according to the complaint and police account cited in the report. Investigators are examining why the accused possessed multiple passports and how the documents were used for international travel.
Police said their review of travel records showed that the man travelled to Thailand in 2017 using one passport and returned to the country in 2023 using another. He also undertook several overseas trips from 2019 using the third passport, according to the investigation described by the police.
During interrogation, Brijesh allegedly told investigators that he had obtained the passports through two agents by submitting forged documents. Police said only one passport was recovered from him at the airport. The other two are reportedly being kept elsewhere, and investigators are attempting to locate them.
The case was registered after immigration officer Gyanendra Padhi lodged a complaint. The accused has been produced in court, while police continue to investigate the alleged identities, documents and travel history linked to the three passports. Officers are also trying to trace the two agents who allegedly facilitated the applications and recover the remaining documents.
The incident places the document-verification process at a major airport under scrutiny, although the police investigation is still at an early stage. The central allegations — including the use of forged documents, the involvement of agents and the purpose of maintaining multiple identities — remain subject to the legal process and further investigation.
Police said the immediate next steps are to recover the two missing passports, identify and locate the alleged agents, and establish how the documents were obtained and used across different journeys. Further details are expected as investigators examine the passport records, immigration data and materials submitted during the applications.
