Makeup artist who helped people flee country using disguises held in Delhi’s Rohini

Police said the makeup artist, Shamsher Singh, claimed to have helped 10 to 12 others in a similar manner in exchange for money.

Police on Sunday arrested a 42-year-old makeup artist from Rohini for allegedly helping a 32-year-old man pose as a 81-year-old man in order to flee to New York last week.

Police Sunday arrested a 42-year-old makeup artist from Rohini for allegedly helping a 32-year-old man pose as a 81-year-old man in order to flee to New York last week. (HT File (Representative Image))

Police said the makeup artist, Shamsher Singh, claimed to have helped 10 to 12 others in a similar manner in exchange for money. Police are now finding out if the others also fled the country using a disguise. Police are also looking into the possibility of connivance of an airline official in connection with the case last week.

On September 8, 32-year-old Jayesh Patel from Ahmedabad had arrived at the Delhi airport to board a flight to New York. He was caught by the immigration staff for posing as an 81-year-old man. The man was arrested when the immigration officer saw that the man’s skin did not look like that of an octogenarian.

It was found that he was carrying a fraudulently obtained passport and had put on makeup to disguise himself as an elderly man. Patel had also sought wheelchair assistance from the airline’s ground staff to convince the immigration officers that he was aged.

On Monday, deputy commissioner of police (IGI Airport) Sanjay Bhatia said during questioning, Patel disclosed that he took the help of a makeup artist from Patel Nagar to disguise his appearance. “Following a week of surveillance, we managed to arrest the makeup artist Shamsher Singh on Sunday. On his instance, we have also recovered cosmetics used for dying Patel’s hair and other paraphernalia,” Bhatia said.

The DCP said Singh was also revealed that he had previously worked as a professional makeup artist. “He said he was paid ₹20,000 by Patel. He said he came in contact with an agent who used to provide people with fake passports. He said the agent approached him and sought his help to change his clients’ appearances in order to avoid detection by the immigration staff. Singh said to make quick money and meet his expenses, he accepted the agent’s offer. He confessed to having helped at least 10 people, including two women, on the direction of the agent,” the officer said.