(Image source from: The Financial Express)

An Indian-origin man form Punjab travelled over 11 countries covering  10,000 Km in bid to enter United States of America illicitly but in vain. The police arrested him and deported back to India.

In the year 2016, the man who is resident of Kapurthala district, Punjab travelled across Central America reaching Mexico through Brazil to move into United Sates. He as well worked for a period of 15 months at a department store in the state of Louisiana before getting arrested and being deported to India.

The man identified as Harpreet Singh was handed over to Delhi police by immigration department after arriving at Indira Gandhi International Airport on Sunday and he further detained by immigration department.

According to an officer, Singh had taken flight ET 887 from Indira Gandhi International Airport to Brazil on August, 2016 on a valid passport. It is after that he started his illegal journey to united States. It was revealed during the interrogation that the man after arriving in Brazil, went to Bolivia where he contacted some associates of his travel agent, back in his hometown in Punjab. From then onwards, he sought assistance to travel by road to US.

The officer added that from Bolivia, Singh went to Lima in Peru, from where he managed to reach Costa Rica passing through Ecuador, Columbia and Panama. From Costa Rica, Singh entered Honduras and went to Guatemala and finally arrived in Mexico. It was in Mexico that Singh took the waterway to reach the United States.

The whole journey took him over a month, however he was not convicted for over a year.

He has been charged under sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using forged document or electronic record as genuine) and passport act.

By Sowmya Sangam