Trichy: A Sri Lankan woman has been sentenced to six months in prison for attempting to travel to Sri Lanka using a fake passport. The Trichy magistrate court delivered the conviction on Wednesday, 15 years after her illegal flight was intercepted.
Details of the Case
The accused, Ashila Yusuf, 42, hailed from Sammanthurai in the Ampara district of Sri Lanka. She arrived in India in the early 2000s and was residing illegally in Thanjavur, according to sources. Ashila obtained a fake passport that listed an address in Quaid-e-Milleth Nagar, Thanjavur district.
Attempt to Travel
On September 19, 2010, Ashila attempted to travel to Sri Lanka from Trichy airport. However, airport immigration officials detected that her passport was counterfeit. The airport station police subsequently registered a case against her under the Passport Act and the Foreigners Act.
Court Proceedings
After the trial concluded, Magistrate M S Subramanian found Ashila guilty and sentenced her to six months of imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 2,000. If she fails to pay the fine, she will serve an additional one month in prison.
Assistant Public Prosecutor B Venkatesan, who represented the state, noted that this is the first instance in Trichy where a woman has been awarded a jail term in a fake passport case.
