SINGAPORE - Two Sri Lankan men have been jailed over forged Singapore documents.

Pushparaj Kapil, 21, and Ramachandran Kriysso Prasshad, 32, were convicted and sentenced to eight months' jail each on April 28 and June 4 respectively, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said in a statement on Saturday (June 6).

Kapil was convicted over having a false Singapore passport and a forged Singapore identity card. Prasshad was convicted over abetting Kapil to obtain these forged documents.

They were arrested by ICA officers at Tuas Checkpoint on Feb 29.

Investigations revealed that Kapil wanted to seek asylum in Canada and sought help from someone called Sam. Kapil agreed to pay Sam 60 lakhs of Sri Lankan rupees (S$45,000) for the travel arrangements to Canada. One lakh is a unit for 100,000.

Sam then contacted Prasshad, who agreed to help with Kapil's journey to Canada. Prasshad later obtained the counterfeit documents in Kuala Lumpur from the associate of a Malaysian man known as Muhammad.

On Feb 28, both Kapil and Prasshad left Kuala Lumpur, intending to travel to Singapore to catch a direct flight to Laos.

Before they departed Kuala Lumpur, Prasshad handed Kapil a pouch containing the counterfeit documents.

They arrived at Tuas Checkpoint the next day at around 6.30am. At the immigration counter, Kapil presented his Sri Lankan passport to an ICA officer for immigration clearance.

Through a brief interview, the officer sensed that something was amiss and referred Kapil to the duty office for further assessment. As Prasshad was Kapil's travel companion, he was also referred to the duty office.

ICA officers conducted a search of Kapil's and Prasshad's bags and immediately arrested both men after finding the counterfeit documents in Kapil's possession.

The identity card and the biodata page of the Singapore passport bore Kapil's name and photograph, but the rest of the details did not belong to him.

If convicted of possessing false travel documents or identity cards, or abetting others to be in possession of these documents, a person may be fined up to $10,000 or jailed for up to 10 years, or both.

The same punishments apply for those charged with abetting such an offence, the authorities said.