LUCKNOW: A 28-year-old resident of Siwan district of Bihar was booked by Sarojini Nagar police of Lucknow for breaching Yemen travel ban.
Identified as Afjal Shah, the accused passenger was caught by team of immigration assistant officer (IAO) Ganesh Mishra and junior IAO Amarjeet Singh at Chaudhary Charan Singh international airport (CCSIA) Lucknow on Friday night, after he alighted from IndiGo flight 6E 1484, that came from Dubai.
According to sources, the accused passenger owns three Indian passports including two-older ones, and had gone to Yemen in 2022, where he was earning around 272,000 Yemeni Rial (around Rs 90,000) per month as labor.
"He went to Dubai in 2022 on a tourist Visa from Mumbai, and then took a regular Visa of Yemen to work there," said the source.
The immigration department of CCSIA has seized Afjal’s passport and will dispatch it to Patna passport seva kendra to cancel it.
Speaking to TOI, Shailendra Giri SHO Sarojini Nagar said: "During questioning the accused claimed that he was helped by a Mumbai based thermos flask manufacturing company to reach Dubai and then further to Yemen."
"Afjal has been booked under section 12/5 passport act 1967 and further questioning is going on," he added.
The Government of India has banned travel to Yemen since 2017. In 2016, Father Tom Uzhunnalil, a Kerala state priest, was kidnapped by terrorists from Aden, which triggered a travel ban.
Till February 2023, the government has seized a total of 372 passports of those who have travelled to Yemen over the past few years, violating a travel ban to the country. But, the GOI has also released 102 passports out of the total seized ones.
