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. He hadn’t reckoned with the sharp eyes of the security personnel who noticed the incongruent black hairs on his arms. Patel’s American dream crashed at the check-in area. He now has a case filed against him.

The plan, four months in the making, came to a

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. 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.

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 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.

Sanjay Bhatia, DCP (Airport), disclosed that profiling and document verification exposed Patel’s attempt to cheat the immigration officials. He had fraudulently acquired the passport of an aged person, fearing that he would not be granted a visa otherwise.

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 was advised to contact an agent, who promised to arrange documents for his travel.

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. 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 sub agent advised Patel to use a wheelchair in the airport.

The visa to Amrik Singh was confirmed and Patel was called to Delhi and given the tickets and travel documents. The hair on his arms and the youthful skin of the wheelchair-bound passenger aroused the suspicions of the security staff. They detained him and handed him over to Delhi Police for investigation.

Police said that the agent, sub-agent and the make-up artist who had assisted Patel in the fraud are missing and teams are out to track them.