Man arrested for tearing out passport pages to hide secret trips to Bangkok
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A holidaymaker who tore pages out of his passport to hide his travels from his family now faces criminal charges after airport staff spotted he'd done it.
V K Bhalerao, 51, who lives in the city of Pune in India, was found to have made four trips to Bangkok, which he didn't want his nearest and dearest to know about.
He was arrested at Mumbai international airport after passport officials made the discovery and a police investigation in Sahar followed.
When a passport is deliberately torn, it becomes invalid and damaging a passport in India is an offence under the Passports Act, 1967.
The immigration officials spotted the missing pages during a routine inspection and found pages 17/18 and 21 to 26 were missing, a Sahar police officer said.
The man was initially coy about why he'd torn the pages out but it was revealed that they'd all had immigration stamps for his trips to Bangkok on them.
According to reports, Mr Bhalerao was also charged under BNS Section 318 (4) (deceiving a person, or fraudulently or dishonestly inducing a person to deliver property).
Duty officer Vijay Kumar Yadav said they eventually persuaded the man to reveal the truth.
The Indian man was initially coy about why he'd torn four pages out of his passport
It's against the law to deface a passport in India - and the tourist, 51-year-old V K Bhalerao, now faces criminal charges
He said: 'Sustained questioning helped the immigration officials learn the truth that he tore the pages out to hide his Bangkok trips from his family.'
Earlier this week, it was revealed a pensioner couple were denied their dream cruise to New York because of a post-Brexit passport rule.
Grandparents Jenny Gee, 69, and Trevor Bamford, 77, paid £3,600 in the autumn for the trip to the Big Apple.
But they were turned away at the last minute as they stood in the queue to board the ship before being handed a letter.
The voyage was on Trevor's bucket list and marked two weeks after he had finished three years of treatment for severe prostate cancer.
His doting partner said he turned white and feared he was going to have a stroke when they were ushered out of the line when he was told he couldn't travel because of a passport rule.
The couple had booked the cruise as the first leg of their trip to visit their daughter and her family.
They had to go back to their home in Bristol and have since paid a further £1,400 to fly to NY next Monday.
British passports issued before 2018 can be valid for over 10 years, because time remaining on the previous passport could be added to a new one.
But EU rules now state that, to travel in the EU or Schengen zone, a British passport must be less than ten years old and valid for three months after the planned date of return to the UK.
Trevor's passport was issued on March 2 2015, and expires in September, so was valid for ten years and seven months.
Staff explained to the couple that the extra months on Trevor's passport didn't count and he couldn't board the boat because it travelled through EU waters: docking in Le Havre, France, on April 28, before heading across the Atlantic.
Jenny, who used to work in communications, said: 'We were so shocked and upset.
'This trip has been Trevor's dream for ages. I honestly thought he was going to have a stroke he was so upset he went white and was shaking.
Grandparents Jenny Gee, 69, and Trevor Bamford, 77, paid £3,600 in the autumn for the trip to New York, but were denied at the last minute due to a post-Brexit passport rule
EU rules now state that, to travel in the EU or Schengen zone, a British passport must be less than ten years old and valid for three months
'This is the longest trip we've ever done and we've been really looking forward to it.
'There needs to be more awareness of this passport rule. I've spoken to loads of people about this and none of them knew about it.
'It's not even consistent. Trevor has travelled in Europe in the last month with no border problems at all, and we have to fly via Dublin and we've been told that's fine.
'It's such a shame, we can travel anywhere in the world but not the EU, and they are our closest allies.'
The ship was set to dock in New York on Monday, and the couple were staying in the Big Apple a week before travelling to Arkansas to visit family and flying home on May 22.
Trevor was diagnosed with severe prostate cancer three years ago and has just finished radiotherapy and hormone treatment.
He used to work in the merchant navy and has been looking forward to cruising across the Atlantic for years.
The couple gave all their passport details when they booked the trip but were not told there might be a problem with Trevor's passport.
He used the passport to travel to Spain, Italy and Switzerland in March and April with no problems.
Jenny said she knew nothing of the new passport rule before being handed a letter by the staff after she and Trevor were ushered out of the queue.
The letter explained the rule and also said Trevor, a retired business owner, wasn't entitled to any compensation or money back.
Jenny wasn't entitled to a refund either.
She said: 'It doesn't matter to travel companies, they can sell the places again.
'This is happening to people a lot, they need to be told about the rule when they book.'
