A noted Kashmiri Urologist on his way to China for a conference was on Saturday detained at the Indira Gandhi International Airport by the Immigration authorities for allegedly tampering with his passport. The authorities, however, did allow him to go once the plane to Shanghai that he had to board departed.

Dr Saleem Wani, on his way to attend an international Urology conference, had a stapled visa which is not accepted by the Immigration authorities at the airport. The Immigration officers did not question the stapled visa and instead stopped him for alleged tampering in his passport. Wani told The Sunday Express that the authorities stopped him, saying his passport has been tampered with. “I had gone to perform Haj last year. They pasted several stickers on my passport pages, which I removed and there were certain scratches on the Saudi visa. The immigration authorities stopped me saying I have tampered with the passport which is not true,” he said.

When contacted, DCP (Airport) K C Diwedi said Immigration had not handed him over to the police and he had been cleared. “It was an issue with the Immigration authorities. We have nothing to do with it. If they would have asked us to press charges, we would have,” he said. “Immigration authorities had told us that he (Dr Saleem Wani) has tampered with his passport and that they are looking into it.”