A 36-year-old Nepalese national was detained at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport for allegedly trying to travel to South Africa by producing a fake no objection certificate from his country's embassy in New Delhi, police said on Friday. The incident took place at the airport on Wednesday evening when the man with a Nepalese passport was intercepted at the immigration counter, an official said.

The accused, travelling to Johannesburg (South Africa) via Dubai by 7.20 pm flight, was carrying a boarding pass and an NOC allegedly issued by Nepal embassy in New Delhi and other documents, he said.

While checking the documents, the immigration officer suspected the authenticity of the NOC and took the accused to the immigration wing in-charge, he said.

On interrogation, the man revealed that he was travelling to Johannesburg for work, and he had come to Mumbai on the instruction of a Delhi-based agent, who had provided him South African visa and an NOC from the Nepal embassy, the official said.

After the embassy confirmed that no such NOC had been issued to the traveller, the man was detained, he said.

An FIR under section 420 (cheating), 465 (punishment for forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against the traveller and the agent who procured the forged documents for him, the official added.

In a similar incident last week, four Nepalese women were arrested at the airport for producing forged NOCs to travel to Oman. The four had obtained NOCs from their agent who was helping them go to Oman, they told police.

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