Mumbai student mutilates passport to hide Thailand trip from institute funding overseas internship

A fashion student from Mumbai was intercepted at the Mumbai Airport while trying to board a flight to Singapore.

According to a report by The Times of India, officials of the immigration department found that four pages were missing in 25-year-old S S Ghatol's passport.

Ghatol who is a first-year student was travelling to Singapore on a tourist visa, to attend an internship financed by her institute in Worli.

The first-year student had torn four pages from her passport to conceal her earlier trip to Thailand which she had taken from February 11 to 14.

According to TOI, a police official said that Ghatol had mutilated her passport to hide her trip from her institute and had also exempted from an examination stating that she was sick.

According to the publication's report, Sujit Patil, Assistant Immigration Officer said that Ghatol's deeds were to hide her Thailand trip for which she has missed out on an exam.

Patil said that Ghatol was afraid that the institute which had short-listed her for the overseas internship would find out about her trip, being a reason of exempting the examination.

According to TOI, the female student had been charged with cheating and violations under the Passport Act.

In a similar incident, immigration officials at the Mumbai International Airport had detained a person in July 2024, after finding out that he had tampered with 12 pages of his passport in order to hide his earlier trips to Bangkok and Thailand.

The passenger, identified as Tushar Pawar (33), was arrested by the Sahar police which said that the man committed the crime to hide his previous trips' evidence from his wife.

Pawar has been booked under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 318 (4) for cheating and the Indian Passport Act and has been sent to judicial custody.