File photo of Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi.
A dozen fliers were held at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in New Delhi today for allegedly travelling on fraudulent visas to Abu Dhabi.
Officials said the incident occurred around 3:00 am at terminal-3 of the airport when sleuths of CISF intelligence wing detected the suspicious movements of a flier, identified as AH Ansari, as he met three others in the immigration area.
They said further interrogation of Mr Ansari revealed that he was travelling on a tourist visa to Abu Dhabi.
CISF and immigration officials subsequently asked him to produce the return ticket, as required in case of a tourist Visa, upon which he produced an Air India ticket of October 20.
"On verifying the ticket details from the concerned airline (Air India) his (Ansari's) ticket was found fake. Jet Airways staff had issued him the boarding card without verifying his return ticket," a statement from the Central Industrial Security Force said.
It was later disclosed that Mr Ansari was part of a 12-member group which was also travelling to Abu Dhabi in the same manner and he was helped by them to cross over the immigration channel as this was his first time.
"All the 12 passengers had manipulated their visa in order to avoid the formalities of obtaining Protection of Emigrants and took an easy route to fly on tourist visa. It has also come to notice that these passengers were carrying both employment and tourist visas," the CISF said.
Officials said all the dozen people have been handed over to immigration authorities who are probing the matter further.
In a separate incident at the IGIA yesterday, a loader of a private airline was arrested for allegedly stealing Rs 11,000 cash from the registered baggage of a passenger coming from Ranchi.
The loader has been identified as Devi Singh.