South Korean 'assaults' immigration official, held

A South Korean national reportedly assaulted an immigration official at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) on Tuesday night, after the former was allegedly detained for nearly three hours.

Bengaluru International Airport police arrested Seugwan Park (40), following a complaint by immigration officer, Y S Saini.

Park had arrived at KIA, Bengaluru from Brazil, around 7.30 pm on Tuesday. At the immigration counter, officer Saini told him to pay Rs 2,000 as visa charges and collect his passport back. Park gave his credit card, but it was not accepted. Apparently, there was an issue with the card, and also the swiping (POS) machine.

Park told the officials that he would go outside the airport, and try the card at an ATM kiosk, and return to pay the money. But, officer Saini refused the request and asked him to wait.

Park waited till 11 pm. However, he was not allowed to go outside. After waiting for almost three hours Park was seemingly angry, and he assaulted officer Saini, critically injuring Saini’s eye. Saini was later treated at the airport hospital, and a complaint was filed.

A senior police officer, meanwhile, confirmed that Seugwan Park was supposed to take a visa-on-arrival by paying a fee, but, he had a problem with the credit card. He did not have enough cash to pay the visa fee. When his visa-on-arrival was likely to be rejected, he attacked the immigration officer. A case is registered for assaulting a public servant while on duty, and the accused has been taken into custody.

In his statement to the police, Park said as the swiping machine was not working, he told the immigration officials that he would go outside and withdraw money from an ATM. As he was not allowed to go out, he became agitated. He did not have any intention to assault the concerned official, said the statement.