Thai national arrested from Kolkata hotel with suspicious passport, expired visa

Kolkata Police arrested a Thai national from a hotel in central Kolkata after discovering that he was in possession of an expired visa and a suspicious Thai passport. He was arrested at around 2.50 am on Thursday, August 11.

In the course of conducting extensive checks of hotels and lodges ahead of Independence Day, officials from the Harestreet police station visited the Karchole Hotel at Bentinck Street in central Kolkata.

While checking the rooms there, they found a person identified as Ajay Pratap Singh in possession of a suspicious passport with an expired visa. A case under sections of the Foreigners Act was registered against 55-year-old Ajay Pratap Singh, a native of Bangkok, Thailand.

The accused had been illegally staying in India since the expiry of his visa on January 17, 2019. His passport, mobile phone, a tablet and cash worth Rs 1,670 were seized and deposited at the police station for further investigations.

Kolkata police said that Ajay Pratap Singh’s family were natives of Lucknow, but his parents settled in Bangkok and he was born there. He is a doctor by profession and has been residing in India since 2019. The stamp on his passport also appears suspicious, stated police sources.