It was quite a getup: the white beard, thick-rimmed glasses, and cotton turban. The wheelchair especially was a convincing touch.
However, the bizarre ensemble was all a disguise.
When the seemingly-frail passenger reached screening at the Indra Gandhi International airport in New Delhi he raised suspicion with staff.
On Sunday evening, the passenger was attempting to board a flight departing India’s busiest airport for New York.
“He posed as if he was very old and incapacitated,” Shrikan Kishore an official for India’s CISF told CNN.
He was wearing a baggy white tunic and turban, and large black slippers, however when the passenger refused to be frisked his appearance raised further questions.
“Our screener asked the person in the wheelchair to stand. He said that he cannot stand. Our screener asked if he would stand with support. He reluctantly stood up.”
His Indian passport and travel documents gave the passenger’s birth date as 1938, almost as old as the country itself. However, on closer inspection, the black roots and of his magnificent beard suggested he was not the 81-year-old passenger he claimed to be.
After further questioning, the security officers discovered, beneath the bleached beard was a 32-year-old Jayesh Patel of Gujarat state.
His fake passport and disguise were confiscated by security and his details were given to immigration authorities.
Source: Nzherald Featured Image- The impressive beard and white tunic was an elaborate disguise/Nzherald
