He was later handed over to the Airport police station.

The immigration officials caught one Hussain (27), son of Musa, a native of Kodagu, who arrived in the City by Air Arabia flight number G9497 from Sharjah, after they found that he was travelling on someone else’s passport.

“Hussain had affixed his photograph on one Abu Baker’s passport. When asked he confessed that he had bought Abu’s passport from an agent in Mumbai for Rs 45,000 early this year. Hussain was working in a hotel in Mumbai and wanted to go to Sharjah to look for better job opportunities. He had travelled on Abu’s passport from Mumbai to Sharjah in April,” said an immigration officer. “He has been held on charges of impersonation, forgery and cheating, under Sections 419, 420 and 468 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 12 of the Passport Act,” he added.

Hussain had come on a vacation to visit his native place. He was scheduled to return to Sharjah after some time.
Kerala-born Abu’s passport (number E9359044) was issued in Jalandhar in 2001. The passport mentioned his Jalandhar address — 108/2, Nahru Apartments, Masjid Street, Jalandhar.

“What is surprising is that Hussain managed to get through the immigration authorities in Mumbai and Sharjah. Nobody noticed that he was travelling on a photo-substituted passport,” said the officer.

The enforcement agencies are on their toes to track fake and impersonated passports and stolen visas. Just last month, on September 27, a 23-year-old Sri Lankan, Thushyanthan, was nabbed by immigration officials in Bangalore while he was trying to board a flight to the UK using a fake passport, visa and departure stamping.
“He was trying to sneak into security check without immigration clearance. That’s when we caught him. Thushyanthan wanted to settle down in Frankfurt with his sister and brother-in-law, and had contacted an agent in August for an Indian passport and visa,” said the officer.

On September 18, Nimal Kasan (21), a ‘resident’ of Chennai was deported to Bangalore from Dubai enroute Paris where the immigration officers found him travelling on a “stolen” Schengen visa.

Nimal, originally from Sri Lanka, had left for Paris from Bangalore on a duplicate passport and visa. Recently all international airports in the world have been alerted about stolen UK and Schengen visa stickers. “Around 900 UK and 99 Schengen visa stickers have been stolen. The respective countries have sent us the serial numbers of the visas, they are pasted on all the immigration counters at the airport,” said the officer. Immigration authorities in Dubai found Nimal’s visa number listed among the stolen ones.