SINGAPORE, July 23 — Three Sri Lankan men were convicted and sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment on July 20 for possessing forged Malaysia visas in their Sri Lankan passports, according to Singapore Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA).
Investigations revealed that Roopan Diasrepinsan, 20; Nalliah Selvamany Rohan, 26; and Kanthanadan Jasitharan, 23; wanted to seek employment outside of Sri Lanka, and sought the assistance of agents in their country to make the arrangements.
One of the agents Rajanikanth arranged for Rohan and Jasitharan’s trip to Malaysia through Singapore for a price of about S$2,600 (RM7,744) each while Roopan via another agent known as Dinesh for about S$4,200.
Rohan and Jasitharan arrived in Singapore with Rajanikanth on June 18, while Roopan on June 26, ICA said in a statement today.
After their arrival, Rajanikanth collected Rohan and Jasitharan’s passports and affixed them with forged Malaysia visas when they were returned to them.
As for Roopan, the passport was handed over to a man believed to be working in cahoots with Rajanikanth to obtain the forged Malaysia visas.
On June 27, when the three of them were departing Singapore at Woodlands checkpoint, ICA officers conducted further checks and placed them under arrest after detecting anomalies in their Malaysian visas.
Rajanikanth, who arranged a Malaysia taxi to send all three to Malaysia, had left Singapore before investigations began while evidence pointed that the Malaysian taxi driver was uninvolved in this scam.
The ICA takes a serious view of persons possessing a false travel document or abetting others to be in possession of one.
Under the Passports Act Section 47(6), a person knowingly in possession of a false foreign travel document shall be guilty of an offence and if convicted, may be sentenced to a fine not exceeding S$10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years or both. — Bernama
