How one identity splits across three documents
Fresh evidence has thrown new light on the controversial case of Indian national Niharika Handa, who allegedly secured Ghanaian citizenship under questionable circumstances.
Investigators now say the inconsistencies in her documents extend beyond Ghana and point to a wider pattern of suspected identity fraud spanning multiple countries.
The unfolding saga has drawn renewed attention to how Ms. Handa and her son, Punar Vasu Handa, obtained Ghanaian passports and naturalisation rights after living in Ghana for fewer years than the law requires.
More troubling, however, are the conflicting records of her date of birth – discrepancies so stark that investigators believe they cannot be explained away as mere “clerical errors,” as her lawyers insist.
A tale of three birth dates
The controversy first erupted when it emerged that Ms. Handa’s Ghanaian passport records her date of birth as September 14, 1965, while her Indian passport lists it as September 14, 1961 – a four-year difference.
When media reports questioned how this discrepancy was allowed to slip through Ghana’s immigration processes, her lawyer, prominent legal practitioner Thaddeus Sory, issued a statement. He claimed the inconsistency was “obviously a clerical error.” But the trail of documents suggests otherwise. On July 8, 2022, Ms. Handa obtained a Ghana Card bearing the disputed year 1965.
Just twelve days later, on July 20, 2022, she was issued a Ghanaian passport carrying the exact same year of birth. For critics, this timeline casts doubt on the claim of a simple mistake.
Instead, it suggests that two competent Ghanaian state institutions – the National Identification Authority and the Passport Office – recorded the same birth year she now claims to be a clerical error, without any intention on Miss Niharika Handa’s part to deceive.
Using the “error” to build a new identity
Despite maintaining that her passport’s date of birth was erroneous, Ms. Handa has made extensive use of it. She has travelled internationally to the United Kingdom, Schengen countries, Dubai, and Morocco, all on the Ghanaian passport reflecting 1965 as her year of birth.
She has also opened bank accounts and established new businesses in Ghana, the UK, Austria, and other jurisdictions, all using the same disputed records.
At Ghana’s Registrar-General’s Department, she amended corporate filings for Gold Crest Refinery, replacing her earlier birth year of 1961 – as found on her Indian passport – with 1965, aligning it with her Ghanaian identity documents.
This raises the question: if indeed this was a clerical mistake, why did Ms. Handa continue to rely on it in official and commercial dealings across multiple countries?
New revelations from India
The picture grows murkier when records from India are examined. Investigators have uncovered that Ms. Handa’s Indian Permanent Account Number (PAN) card and driver’s licence both list her birth year as 1964.
This revelation means that she now has three conflicting birth years across official documents:
1961 – on her Indian passport.
1964 – on her Indian PAN card and driver’s licence.
1965 – on her Ghanaian passport and GhanaCard.
All three dates of birth have reportedly been used to open bank accounts and register businesses in different countries. These discrepancies in birth dates clearly point to an attempt to deceive authorities globally and make it difficult to track down Niharika Handa.
A troubling background
Even as Ms. Handa was pursuing naturalisation in Ghana, she faced serious legal troubles in India. Court records show she was declared an absconder and proclaimed offender in multiple criminal proceedings and was the subject of 14 non-bailable arrest warrants.
Son also under suspicion
The trail of inconsistencies does not end with Ms. Handa. Her son, Punar Vasu Handa, appears to be implicated in similar identity manipulations. His Ghanaian passport lists his date of birth as December 7, 1985, while his Indian PAN Card records it as February 7, 1985.
Before travelling from India to Dubai in 2015, he allegedly applied for a new passport, declaring his date of birth as December 7, 1985, and claiming that his previous passport had been lost.
The suspicion here is that his original passport reflected the February date from his PAN Card, and that he deliberately altered it in the new passport to bypass immigration scrutiny in India.
Implications for Ghana
Experts warn that the Handa case exposes glaring weaknesses in Ghana’s immigration and naturalisation systems. They argue that if individuals with questionable records can so easily acquire Ghanaian citizenship and passports, the country risks undermining the credibility of its travel documents.
The case is raising fundamental questions about Ghana’s ability to safeguard its citizenship system from infiltration by individuals seeking to exploit loopholes for personal gain.
