Nearly 20 years in India, fake Aadhaar and voter ID: Indonesian woman held at Nepal border

For years, she allegedly ran a Buddhist centre in Kolkata as its chairperson. On 10 November, a routine check at the India-Nepal border suggested she was not who her Indian papers said she was. The woman, named Rohana in her Indonesian passport, was detained by immigration officials at Sonauli, in Maharajganj district, as she tried to cross into Nepal. Police say she had been living in India since 2005 on a false identity, and a case has been registered against her.

A mismatch at the counter

She reached the Sonauli immigration office at about 7:30 pm, heading for Lumbini, and presented an Indian voter ID card. The card carried a different name from her passport, reported as Lee Kim Lian in some accounts and Li Kim Lien in others. It also gave a different date of birth. Her passport says 20 October 1970, and the voter card says 29 June 1975.

Officials grew suspicious of both the discrepancy and the way she spoke Hindi. her Hindi sounded unusual. When questioned, she produced her passport and her real nationality came to light. Police say they recovered an Indian voter ID card, an Aadhaar card and PAN cards. She also held valid visas for China and Japan and had travelled abroad several times.

Nearly two decades in India, police say

Preliminary questioning suggests she lived in India continuously from 2005 and obtained several Indian documents under the alleged false identity. She reportedly returned from China in November 2025. In Kolkata, she allegedly operated a Buddhist centre through an NGO and served as its chairperson. She described herself as president of a Kolkata-based NGO that provides technical help to Buddhist monks travelling to China. She gave her address as the city’s Tangra area.

Vishal Kumar Shukla, in-charge of Sonauli police station, said a case was registered on the night of 11 November. The charges relate to cheating, forgery and violations of laws governing foreign nationals. Additional Superintendent of Police Siddharth said her real identity emerged during a routine check at the immigration office.

Investigators are trying to establish how she obtained the documents, who helped her and whether others were involved in a wider network. Officials have neither confirmed nor ruled out any angle beyond immigration and document offences. Some reports have raised a possible espionage link, but no evidence has been made public. The allegations are unproven, and no court has ruled on them.

Not the first such case

Sonauli, a major transit point on the India-Nepal border, has seen several recent cases of foreign nationals held over allegedly fake Indian documents. In August, a Thai woman was detained there in similar circumstances. This case is separate from a September 2025 incident, when an Indonesian woman was stopped at Panitanki in Darjeeling district.