Airport authority issues clarification on passport tearing allegation

Team Udayavani, Feb 14, 2019, 2:54 PM IST

Mangaluru: A probe initiated into the allegations of airport security staff deliberately tearing the passport of an NRI lady, V V Rao, director of Mangaluru International airport has said that CCTV footage of the incident shows no misbehaviour on the part of the airport staff.

Acting on the complaint lodged by M Rajamurugan, counsellor (Consular), Embassy of India, Abu Dhabi in connection to the incident, respective agencies were instructed to conduct a thorough inquiry and submit a report on the incident. Accordingly, DC, CISF, security in-charge and AI SATS submitted a report after detailed investigation and viewing the CCTV footage.

A statement issued by the office of the airport director reads, “As per security in-charge report, the said passenger entered the departure entry gate. The security personnel at the departure gate checked the ID proof and flight ticket as per the BCAS guidelines and the passenger entered the terminal building and stood in the queue for X-ray screening of her check in luggage. So it is evident that the security personnel was very polite while checking ID proof and flight ticket validity of Rubeena and no misbehavior is noticed. It is also established that security personnel did not ask her to bring the baby stroller as alleged by the complainant. From the CCTV footage it is very clear that she has not collected the baby stroller till she reached the check-in counter to collect her boarding pass. On reaching the check-in counter it was found that passport pages are detached from the main bio-data page.” 

Another statement by Amith Shetty, operations manager of passenger service SATS reads,”With reference to the complaint, the said passenger reported to the check-in counter with one passport in already torn condition. Check-in counter staff politely denied, as we cannot accept passenger with improper documents. Passport check will be finally done by the immigration department. So counter staff cross-checked with the immigration department. The Immigration department stated that they can be accepted on passenger’s risk and also requested the passenger to change the passport next time. If there are any deportation charges, it should be borne by the passenger. Later, the passenger was accepted for travel.”