The visa to Amrik Singh was confirmed and Patel was called to Delhi and given the tickets and travel documents. The sub agent advised Patel to use a wheelchair in the airport. The artist asked him to grow his beard and coloured his hair and beard white, made him wear a turban and added thick spectacles to the getup.

The agent also sent Patel to a hotel in central Delhi’s Karol Bagh where a make-up artist tried to age him by 50 years. He was advised to contact an agent, who promised to arrange documents for his travel. Six months ago he had discussed his desire to go abroad with a woman, a former neighbour who had shifted to America and was earning significantly more than earlier. He had fraudulently acquired the passport of an aged person, fearing that he would not be granted a visa otherwise. Sanjay Bhatia, DCP (Airport), disclosed that profiling and document verification exposed Patel’s attempt to cheat the immigration officials. The cops said that Patel intended to depart for the US on Monday morning as a man holding a passport issued in the name of octogenarian Amrik Singh. A police officer said on Tuesday that Patel was an electrician based in Ahmedabad who wanted to travel to the US and get a more remunerative job as an electrician there. The makeup artist had forgotten to colour the hair on Patel’s arms, leaving him to the mercy of CISF personnel, who handed him to Delhi Police. The plan, four months in the making, came to a humiliating end when security at the immigration area determined he could not be the man he purported to be, given the difference in the white of his visible hair and the black on his arms. Patel’s American dream crashed at the check-in area. He hadn’t reckoned with the sharp eyes of the security personnel who noticed the incongruent black hairs on his arms. NEW DELHI: With his snow-white facial hair and thick rimmed spectacles, 32-year-old Jayesh Patel was certain he could pass off as an 81-year-old at the Indira Gandhi International Airport.

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