Bengaluru, Jun 3: An Indian expatriate worker, who found himself trapped in Kuwait where he was reportedly harassed by his employer forged an Indian passport so that he could return home.
He, however, was caught by Immigration officials at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Karnataka’s capital soon after he landed. He is now in judicial custody.
The man, identified as Sunny Mathew, hails from Idukki district in Kerala. When he submitted the forged passport -- under the name Muraleedharan Karuvangode -- to C.S. Vishwanath, Immigration Officer, the latter realised that something was not quite right. He noticed that the photo on the document had been tampered with.
Upon questioning, Sunny confessed that he procured an Indian passport from his friends so that he could escape his abusive employer who had his original passport.
He told officials that he had been working in Kuwait as a driver since 2002 and returned to India in June 2017 when his passport had to be renewed. When he went back to Kuwait a month later, his employer began harassing him and withheld his salary. According to Sunny, his passport was confiscated when he demanded that he be paid.
He shared his plight with some friends in Kuwait who helped him procure a passport and replaced the original passport holder’s photograph with that of Sunny. They also arranged for money to buy tickets. The airport police have arrested Sunny on charges of cheating and under various sections of the Passport Act, 1976. The police are now probing how the passport was procured. “The accused told us that one of his friends handed over the passport to him. We are investigating,” a senior police officer said.
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