PRIYA Sewraj, a 30-year-old Surinamese, was, on Friday, fined $40,000 by Magistrate Leron Daly for making a false declaration to procure a Guyanese passport in 2012.

Sewraj, of Lying Street, Georgetown, appeared before the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court and pleaded guilty to the charge.

According to the particulars of the charge, Sewraj on July 13, 2012, at Central Immigration and Passport Office, Georgetown, for the purpose of procuring a new passport, made a false statement by signing to a written declaration that she was Bibi Shazia Khan and that she was never issued or previously held a Guyanese passport, knowing same to be false.

Sewraj apologised to the court and said that she was only trying to get a Guyanese passport.  The magistrate fined Sewraj $40,000 with a default sentence of 12 months.

The Guyana Chronicle was made to understand that Sewraj is a Surinamese by birth and is the holder of a Surinamese passport.

On June 29, 2021, Sewraj appeared at the Consular Section of the U.S. Embassy Georgetown for a scheduled immigrant visa appointment. She was the beneficiary of an immigrant visa case, filed by petitioner Indar Persaud Sewraj, who is listed as her father.

During the immigrant visa application processing at the embassy, her fingerprints were scanned through the electronic visa system.

The system returned a positive fingerprint match for Bibi Shazia Khan, who was born on August 5, 1987 and was the holder of Guyana passport number R0311285. Khan had appeared at embassy in Georgetown on August 13, 2012.

A police investigation was later launched to determine how Sawraj was able to obtain two passports in two different names and nationalities.

During the investigation, it was discovered that on  July 12, 2012, Sewraj went to the Central Immigration and Passport Office and made an application for a Guyanese passport.

However, she presented a birth certificate in the name of Bibi Shazia Khan. Also, in the passport application form, she signed the said name, Bibi Shazia Khan , knowing that it was not her name.

This resulted in Sewraj being issued with a Guyanese passport in the name of Bibi Shazia Khan.

Under caution, Sewraj told the police that at the age of 15 years her mother’s friend applied for a United States visa for her. However, it was later discovered that she had a bogus passport, which resulted in the cancellation of her US visa.