A 31-year-old man from Gujarat recently deported from the US has been arrested in Ahmedabad for allegedly travelling under a fake identity by using an Indian passport issued in someone else’s name, police said on Tuesday.

The accused, Jignesh Patel, native of Kalol in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar district, was deported from the US via Panama. He reached Ahmedabad via New Delhi on Sunday evening.

He had allegedly travelled to Canada from Delhi by using a passport issued in the name of Wasim Khalil, according to an FIR lodged against him at the airport police station in Ahmedabad on Sunday.

Patel was arrested on Sunday, Ahmedabad’s special operations group inspector N.D. Nakum said, adding it was being ascertained whether the passport on which he travelled was fake or issued in Khalil’s name.

The matter came to light during Patel’s arrival immigration clearance at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi after being deported from the US, the
FIR stated.

When his travel documents were scrutinised, it was found that he had obtained an emergency certificate in Panama after informing the authorities that his Indian passport was lost.

However, nothing was found against the lost passport when Patel’s departure details were checked in the system, the FIR said.

Questioned about the passport on which he had left from India, Patel confessed he had used one issued in Khalil’s name, it said.

A further probe revealed that he had left Delhi for Canada on February 3, 2025, by an Air Canada flight.

He was found posing as a different person during departure and was handed over to the police, the FIR said.

Patel had tried to illegally enter America when he was nabbed, Nakum said. He has been booked for cheating by personation and under provisions of the Passport Act.