Surgical blades, sat phone seized at IGI

Blame mischief or a dummy run to check security prepardness before Independence Day, but passengers at Delhi airport are being nabbed with all kinds of banned, dangerous items.

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which is responsible for security at Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport has nabbed passengers with surgical blade and lighters hidden in CD drive of a laptop in days leading up to Independence Day.

Apart from this, they have caught passengers with satellite phone, paper cutter blades hidden in socks and even LED shoes. The security at Delhi airport have been tightened ahead of Independence Day and Secondary Ladder Point Checking (SLPC), where passengers are frisked before entering the aircraft, has been started.

Also, visitor entry has also been banned at IGI.

Here is a list of seizures made by the CISF in the past few days.

On August 7, CISF personnel while checking the bags of an Italian national discovered a satellite phone. The passenger was heading to Abu Dhabi by Etihad Airways.

“As per norms, satellite phones are banned in India. There have been 3-4 such cases in the past two months. We hand over such passengers to the Delhi police, who in turn seize the phone and take action against the passenger,” said a CISF officer. On July 31, a Lucknow-bound passenger was nabbed with seven pieces of paper cutter blades, wrapped in a cover and then hidden inside the right leg sock. During frisking, the CISF staff noticed something unusual and asked the passenger to remove his shoes. The blades were seized and the passenger allowed to fly after writing an apology letter. On the night of July 30, CISF staff noticed some sharp object when a Kuala Lumpur-bound passenger put his laptop in the scanner. Close analysis revealed that a surgical blade had been hidden in the CD drive of his laptop.

“He told us that his laptop had been repaired by a computer engineer and he might have left it there. He tried and couldn’t remove the blade. The person, who had repaired the man’s laptop, was later called to the airport and he remove the blade,” said a CISF official. The passenger was let off after an apology letter. A Hyderabad-bound passenger was detained at Delhi airport on July 27 for trying to carry a lighter in the CD drive of the laptop he was carrying.

“At 2pm, the CISF staff detected a lighter concealed in the CD drive of the laptop. The passenger was bound for Hyderabad by Vistara flight UK-899. The lighter was removed, confiscated and the passenger was allowed to board the flight after a written apology,” said a CISF official.

Who would have thought that carrying a LED shoe could land him in trouble? On June 27, a passenger bound for Singapore was asked to remove the battery of his LED shoes which he was carrying.

The CISF got suspicious during screening due to the light eliminating from the shoe.