Michael D'Silva, Dubai

Dubai, Jul 19: Steven Fernandes was a first-time traveller to the UAE. His excitement turned into nightmare when immigration authorities at Sharjah airport put him under investigation for holding a deformed Indian passport.

Steven, from Kemmannu, Udupi was on employment visa and was traveling out of India for the first time. He landed in Sharjah on Thursday July 10 night.

Initially, the authorities suspected him of tampering the passport, but investigators cleared him after inspecting the passport and concluding that it was a binding error.

The center pages of the passport were malformed during the binding process and even passed though the stricter quality checks at the passport office.

Steven was given an option to exit and return on a new passport.

The ordeal ended by the relentless effort of senior manager of the company Gladson Ammanna and the timely intervention of the Indian consulate officials who replaced his passport by issuing a new one within three days. He was released on Thursday July 17.

The incident brings into question the awareness among passport control officials at Mangalore International Airport about the consequences of such malformed passport as travel document. As shown in the photograph, the exit stamp is right on the deformed page.

Also, the onus also falls on the the passport holder, in this case Steven, to check the passport for malformation, errors in details/printing/binding and report it to the passport office within specified days.