Police in Thailand have arrested seven Indians and a Thai woman on charges of forging official documents that could be used to apply for Thai citizenship, reports in the capital Bangkok said.
A Thai consular official said the fake documents were used to register marriages with Thai women, allowing the foreigners to later seek Thai citizenship, The Nation daily said.
The suspects were identified by police as Dinesh Yadav, 29, Surendra Yadav, 30, Deo Prakash Yadav, 29, Ravindra Pathak, 39, Chandra Prakash, 27, Sunil Kumar Sharma, 29, Onkar Nath Pandey, 18, and Rommadee Yadav, 45.
According to police, Dinesh Yadav used to approach potential Indian customers in the Songhkla area in Thailand. Later, two of his friends in another area would produce fake statements about their customers' marital status.
The men were allegedly paid 200 baht (about Rs 220) per document. The police added that one of the men would then stamp the documents with a fake Indian embassy stamp and charge the customers between 4,000 and 5,000 baht.
The Nation, quoting the police, said the Indian customers could use the fake documents to register marriages with Thai women for money.
A marriage registration allows the spouses to live and work in Thailand, provided they renew their visas every year. After five years, the persons become eligible to apply for Thai citizenship.
PTI