A 34-year-old man from Jaffna was arrested at Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) while attempting to flee to Canada using a forged passport.
Immigration and Emigration officers at the airport arrested the suspect, who had attempted to flee to Canada on the promise of receiving Rs. 13 million from a broker in Anuradhapura.
The suspect had completed his flight clearance and presented his passport to the immigration officer. The officer, suspicious of the photograph in the passport, entered the information into the computer system and discovered that the passport belonged to another person. The actual owner of the passport had been banned from leaving the country by the Trincomalee courts.
The suspect was taken to the Immigration Department's Border Enforcement Unit. During a search, his real passport and national identity card were found in his bag. He then revealed all the facts to the immigration officials.
