FAKE RELATIONSHIPS FAKE CERTIFICATES FAKE DEGREE
- Man tries to pass wife's relatives off as his sons-
- False names put on their documents
- Pays for commerce 'degree' from Madras university
HE wanted to help his relative's children live in Singapore.
So he lied that they were his children.
Mohamed Kassim Shanavas, 47, an Indian national who runs a
foodstall in Punggol, even got fake birth certificates for the two
of them.
One was his wife's younger brother and the other was her nephew,
according to court documents.
The two - Rahman Ahamad, 24, and Ahamad Jawahar Ali, 12 - even got
new identities.
In their fake birth certificates, their names were stated as
Shanavas Ahamad and Shanavas Jawahar Ali.
Based on their relationship with Mohamed Kassim, they were granted
permanent residency in 2003.
Mr Rahman Ahamad (Shanavas Ahamad) even did his national service
and is now a Singapore citizen.
But it turned out that this was not the only lie that Mohamed
Kassim came up with.
GRADUATE CLAIM
He also claimed that he had graduated with a commerce degree from
the University of Madras in Chennai.
He had paid an agent in India 5,000 rupees ($185) to buy the fake
degree.
Yesterday, Mohamed Kassim pleaded guilty to one charge of making a
false statement in his PR application form.
District Judge Aedit Abdullah agreed to his lawyer Mr N
Kanagavijayan's request to postpone the sentencing to next
Monday.
Mr Ronnie Tan, prosecutor for the Immigration & Checkpoints
Authority (ICA), told the court that Mohamed Kassim came here in
1997 because he wanted to earn high wages.
But he had only 10 years of education, and so he decided to buy a
fake degree from an agent known only as Idris.
With that, Mohamed Kassim was able to obtain an employment pass
when he came here in 1997.
He is married to India-born Shanavas Vahithabanu, 45, a housewife.
They have two children, a son, 22, and a daughter, 18.
In September 2003, he decided to apply for permanent residency for
the whole family, including his fake children whom he was
supporting.
He submitted an application form for an Entry Permit to the
Permanent Resident Services Centre at ICA.
In the form, he falsely declared that his highest academic
qualification was the commerce degree.
TWO 'EXTRA' CHILDREN
He also lied that his relative's children were his own. He said he
had four children.
All were granted PR status on 22 Dec 2003.
Mr Tan, the ICA prosecutor, said: 'He knew these statements to be
false as he never studied or graduated from the said university and
he has only two children from his marriage.'
He said Mohamed Kassim's lies were exposed after ICA received a
tip-off and started investigations.
The Singapore consulate in Chennai checked with the University of
Madras and confirmed with ICA that Mohamed Kassim's degree
certificate was not genuine.
He was arrested on 5 Sep this year.
Mohamed Kassim can be fined $4,000 or jailed a year.
Mr Kanagavijayan told The New Paper that Mr Rahman is now a
Singapore citizen and helps out at Mohamed Kassim's food
stall.
Similarly, Mohamed Kassim's son, now doing his NS, and his
daughter, who is studying in a junior college, have also become
citizens, the lawyer added.
Typically, the son have contributed to our society as NS and future
talent, and the daughter will be a great contributor to our economy
talent pool once she graduated, both of them are innocent, as for
the parents, their objectives is to come here for a better living
and a good future for their childrens, so far, though he fakes his
certificate for entry into singapore, he had not done anything
other thing wrong.
In my judgement, let the kids stay, and make him and his wife a
PR, after all, no racial intended, already we got too much PRC
becoming citizens and PRs here, let the other races chop up some
places.
