Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (MS)
Mangaluru, Feb 14: V V Rao, director of Mangaluru International airport has given a clarification with regards to the alleged issue of tearing of the passport of Rubeena, native of Kerala, who travelled to Dubai from the Mangaluru International Airport on February 3.
The statement given by V V Rao says that they have received a complaint sent by M Rajamurugan, counsellor (Consular), Embassy of India, Abu Dhabi in connection to the torn passport of Rubeena.
The statement further says, "On receiving the complaint, the office of the airport director sent the complaint to the respective agencies to inquire into the incident and submit the report. Accordingly DC, CISF, security in-charge and AI SATS submitted the report after conducting thorough investigation of the incident and also viewing the CCTV footage.
"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," says the statement of the airport director.
In addition to the statement of the airport director, Amith Shetty, operations manager of passenger service SATS said, "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."