A Canadian national was arrested at the city airport on Monday on the charge of travelling on a fake passport.

Chiu The Chee, 38, formerly an Indian national of Chinese origin, was about to board a Thai Airways flight to Bangkok on his way to Hong Kong when immigration officials detected anomalies in his passport.

The officials found after checking his details that Chee had come to India on a Canadian passport that had expired in 2008. He was carrying an Indian passport on Monday which he had allegedly obtained by submitting false documents.

Chee lived in Tangra till he migrated to Canada in 1990. He received his Canadian passport in 1993. After failing to find a “decent livelihood”, he returned to Calcutta in 2004 with a miscellaneous visa.

Chee claimed that he had applied for renewal of his Canadian passport in 2008 but the high commission rejected his plea.

“Chee then got an Indian passport through an agent. The passport was procured presumably by submitting forged documents,” said Basab Talukdar, the deputy commissioner of security control and foreigners’ regional registration officer in Calcutta.

On Monday morning, when Chee approached the immigration counter at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport for clearance, two pages of his passport were missing, said an airport official.

“When immigration officials questioned him about it, Chee claimed he knew nothing about his passport being tampered with. However, according to rules, the passport holder is responsible for any damage to it,” the official said.

The officials became suspicious and scanned Chee’s profile in the system to verify whether he had used the passport earlier. It was revealed that Chee had earlier travelled on two other passports — Indian and Canadian.

He was denied boarding and detained. “Chee confessed to the fraud during interrogation. He said he could not find a decent job in Canada as he had studied only till Class X,” said an official.

Chee was handed over to airport police.