The process to enter the United States can get a little tedious but a man from Punjab took an illegal route and travelled through not one but 11 countries. In a bid to enter the US, a man from Punjab identified as Harpreet Singh crossed over 10,000 km from Brazil to Mexico in 2016. He has been deported after he was caught living illegally. The Delhi Police took charge of him from the immigration department. He arrived at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Saturday, May 19.

Harpreet hails from Kaputhala district in Punjab, informed the immigration department. He arrived in Delhi by a United Airlines flight UA82 as a deportee. “The man took flight ET887 from the IGI Airport to Brazil on August 20, 2016, on a valid passport. Thereafter, he started his illegal journey to the US. Questioning revealed that after arriving in Brazil, Singh went to Bolivia where he contacted some associates of his travel agent, back in his hometown in Punjab. There he sought assistance to travel by road, north to the US,” the officer from immigration department said to a leading daily.

Singh's journey started on August 20, 2016, when he took his first flight from Delhi's Indira Gandi airport to Brazil on a valid passport. From there on he started planning his journey to enter the US. From Brazil he went to Bolivia and contacted some travel agents back home. He took assistance on how to reach the US by road. From Bolivia, he went to Lima, Peru. He managed to reach Costa Rica passing through Ecuador, Columbia and Panama. From Costa Rica, he entered Honduras and went to Guatemala and finally arrived in Mexico, as informed by the officer. Singh took a boat to reach the US from Mexico. For all of this, he took almost a month long.

Deputy commissioner of police (IGI Airport) Sanjay Bhatia said, “When he was en-route to the US, his belongings along with his original passport were taken away by local miscreants. He then approached his agent in India who arranged a fake Indian passport for him. Singh also identified his agent as one Rana, a resident of Jalandhar in Punjab.” In the US, Singh worked at a departmental store in the state of  Louisiana. He was apprehended for staying there illegally.

Police officials said that the accused agreed his sneaking into the United States illegally because he wanted to seek a US citizenship. Singh is now charged with multiple sections under the Indian Penal Code. He has been booked 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, informed Bhatia.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 20, 2018 03:51 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).