'Aap Patna se hain kya?': Afghan farebi's house in Bihar capital was epicentre of big document fraud

The arrest of an Afghan national at Lucknow’s Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport has peeled back the layers of a sophisticated racket involving forged Indian identities, illegal stays and suspicious electoral registrations in Bihar’s capital.

As per TOI, immigration officers on May 22 detained 29-year-old Jandullah Dad Mohammad from Afghanistan’s Paktika province as he attempted to board a flight to Sharjah using an Indian passport under the alias Rehan, son of Kabir. His meticulously crafted documents, including an Aadhaar card, PAN card, driving licence, voter ID and even a Patna municipal birth certificate, initially painted him as a resident of Wakil Anwer House, a nondescript building near Patna Junction.

But a routine verbal check by an immigration officer unravelled his façade. “Aap Patna ke hain? Kahaan se hain wahan?” the officer asked, spotting inconsistencies in Rehan’s Pashto-accented replies and shaky knowledge of the city. Further checks revealed his Afghan passport and an expired Indian medical visa from 2019, alongside $1,600, UAE dirhams and multiple phones, including an iPhone 16 Pro.

According to the TOI report, the address on Rehan’s documents, Wakil Anwer House in Patna’s Kotwali area, has now become the epicentre of an investigation into duplicate and potentially fraudulent voter registrations. Electoral rolls show at least four male occupants sharing identical details - same father’s name (Kabir), similar ages and multiple Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPICs).

One such case involves Mansur, Rehan’s supposed brother, who holds two EPICs. Another tenant, Mohammad Sher Khan, also has duplicate voter IDs. “One individual cannot have two EPICs,” Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) Raghvendra Pratap Singh was quoted by TOI, who has ordered cancellations of the bogus cards.

One of the building’s owners, Syed Akbar Ahmad, told TOI that Afghan tenants have lived there for decades, some since their grandfathers’ time. “Rehan’s father came from Afghanistan years ago. His son arrived five years back, but I don’t know their whereabouts now,” he was quoted by TOI. While older tenants were never police-verified, new occupants now sign rent agreements and undergo checks.

Jandullah’s case suggests a well-oiled document racket in Patna. After entering India on a six-day medical visa in December 2019, he vanished from Delhi’s radar, only to resurface with a full set of fake IDs by 2020. Intelligence agencies suspect local operatives helped him secure Aadhaar, PAN and voter cards to pass off as an Indian.

“Who provided these forged identities? How did he get multiple EPICs? What was he doing in Patna for five years?” an intelligence officer questioned. The Election Commission is now verifying all occupants’ documents, a task complicated by the absence of women on the electoral list, TOI reported.

The arrest comes amid heightened scrutiny of illegal immigration and citizenship in India. While the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA), offers a legal route for persecuted minorities from Afghanistan, Jandullah’s case - where religion remains unspecified - points to exploitation of forged documents instead.

Afghan nationals settled in India pre-1947, like some Wakil Anwer House tenants, may qualify for citizenship. But Jandullah’s attempt to flee to Sharjah hints at ulterior motives - possibly evading authorities or seeking work abroad under a fake identity.

According to a News18 report, police are now tracing his movements across India, probing how he remained undetected for years. “This is a significant lapse,” a senior intelligence official admitted. Custodial interrogation may reveal if more individuals are involved in the racket.