An Indian man disguised as an 81-year-old has been caught with a fake passport while trying to board a flight to the United States, authorities say.
Jayesh Patel, 32, was arrested at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport before a flight to New York on Sunday, with dyed white hair and beard and wearing large spectacles.
CCTV images show Mr Patel arrived in a wheelchair and initially passed through security and immigration checks.
However, officials grew suspicious after he refused to go through frisking because he said was unable to stand due to his age, India's Central Industrial Security Force (CIFS) said in a media release quoted in local media outlets.
India TV News also reported that the man was avoiding eye contact during the interaction.
"The appearance and skin texture of the passenger seemed to be much younger than mentioned in the passport," a senior CISF officer was quoted as saying.
"The man was wearing zero-power glasses to conceal his age."
His passport showed the name of Amrik Singh with the date of birth of February 2, 1938, according to the media outlet.
"He was later handed over to immigration officials on charges of impersonation," the CISF officer said.
NDTV, another local media outlet, reported that Mr Patel had allegedly been in touch with an agent, who gave him his documents and provided a makeup artist.
"He was planning to go to the US for a job. But his profile was such that he would not have gotten a visa easily," a senior police officer reportedly told NDTV.
"With a fake name — Amrik Singh, a fake address, he managed to get a passport and a US visa."
