On 20 July 2018, three Sri Lankan men, aged from 20 to 26, were convicted and sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment for possessing forged Malaysia visas in their Sri Lankan passports. Officers from the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) at Woodlands checkpoint had detected anomalies in their Malaysia visas and placed them under arrest on 27 June 2018.

2.         Investigations revealed that Nalliah Selvamany Rohan (Rohan), 26 and Kanthanadan Jasitharan (Jasitharan), 23 wanted to seek employment outside of Sri Lanka, and sought the assistance of an agent, known as Rajanikanth in Sri Lanka to make the arrangements. Rajanikanth arranged for their trip to Malaysia through Singapore for a price of 305,000 Sri Lankan rupees (about SGD$2,600) each. Wanting also to seek employment outside of Sri Lanka, Roopan Diasrepinsan (Roopan), 20 approached another agent known as Dinesh to assist him to go to Malaysia for a price of 500,000 Sri Lankan rupees (about SGD$4,200).

3.         On 18 June 2018, Rohan and Jasitharan arrived in Singapore with Rajanikanth, while Roopan arrived on 26 June 2018. After their arrival, Rajanikanth collected Rohan and Jasitharan’s passports. The passports were affixed 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 27 June 2018 at about 8pm, Rajanikanth arranged a Malaysia taxi to send all three to Malaysia.

4.         On 27 June 2018 at about 9.20pm, when the three of them were departing Singapore at Woodlands checkpoint, ICA officers conducted further checks on them. They placed them under arrest after detecting anomalies in their Malaysia visas. Rajanikanth had left Singapore before investigations began while evidence pointed that the Malaysian taxi driver was uninvolved in this scam.

5.         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 $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years or to both.

Rohan

Jasitharan

Roopan

IMMIGRATION & CHECKPOINTS AUTHORITY
23 JULY 2018