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An Indian member of Parliament was arrested on Wednesday for trying to smuggle a woman and a boy on a flight to Canada by using the passports of his wife and son, officials said.

Babubhai Katara was stopped by immigration officials at New Delhi airport along with Paramjit Kaur, 30, and a 14-year-old boy identified as Amarjeet Singh.

"He tried to pass them off as his wife and child," police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said.

They were caught trying to board an Air-India flight to Toronto and detained by immigration officials, he said.

Ms. Kaur and the boy were taken into custody along with Mr. Katara, a member of parliament from the western state of Gujarat for the opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The MP and Ms. Kaur were likely to be charged with forgery and fraud, an airport official said, offences that carry jail sentences.

The BJP suspended Mr. Katara from the party.

Many Indian MPs are seen as corrupt and Social Watch India, a watchdog, said in a report last year that more than 30 per cent of lawmakers aged between 36 and 45 years were facing criminal charges.

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