09 July,2022 07:57 AM IST | Mumbai | Faizan Khan
The man told his wife that he was going abroad for an official trip. Representation pic
The ruse seemed foolproof - a trip abroad for official work. The plan: to frolic in the pristine blue waters of the Maldives with his girlfriend. Confident that he had pulled off an extra-marital stunt, this 32-year-old engineer with an MNC literally pulled off a few pages from his passport to hide his masti from his wife, blissfully unaware that it was a crime. On his return, he was promptly arrested at the city airport.
The engineer was handed over to the Sahar police on Thursday after immigration authorities found that some pages from his passport were missing after his return from the Maldives and he was unable to give a satisfactory reply to them.
The police booked him for cheating and forgery under the Indian Penal Code and questioned him. The engineer told the police that he had removed the visa stamped pages to save himself from his wife's wrath.
The engineer went to the Maldives a few days ago but cut short the trip after his wife kept calling him. REPRESENTATION PIC
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Sources at Sahar police station said the man went to the island nation a few days ago to meet his girlfriend by telling her that he was going on a foreign trip for official work. But his wife grew suspicious when he didn't take her calls.
When his wife repeatedly called him on WhatsApp, the man decided to cut short his trip. To keep his Maldives story under wraps, he tore up a few pages from his passport and arrived in Mumbai on Thursday night. But immigration authorities found pages 3-6 and 31-34 from his passport missing and he was evasive about it.
"He deliberately tore pages from his passport and travelled from the Maldives to India and hence he has committed an offence of cheating with the passport authority and immigration department," said an immigration officer in his complaint to Sahar police.
A police source said the man told the cops about his plan to meet his girlfriend. "He also said that he was not aware that tearing up pages from the passport is a criminal offence," said an officer. The passport is issued by the government of India and is considered a government property. Any damage to it amounts to a criminal act.
