Hijack scare as man seeks to frame cops on A-I flight

AS THE PLANE LANDED, PERSONNEL FROM THE CENTRAL INDUSTRIAL SECURITY FORCE ENTERED THE AIRCRAFT AND DETAINED SOME PASSENGERS

A man’s attempt to frame Karnataka police personnel, who were travelling on a Mumbai-Jodhpur flight on Monday in search of a boy who was reported missing from Karnataka, lead to a hijack scare.

Air India flight 645 was cruising when a passenger informed crew about suspicious activity of four passengers and suggested that they could be terrorists. The crew informed the pilot, who informed the air traffic controller and requested for the presence of security personnel upon arrival.

As the plane landed, personnel from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) entered the aircraft and detained some passengers. Police began questioned the four suspects.

But hours of questioning twisted the entire incident and the complainant turned out to be the accused.

“The passenger, who raised an alarm, was unemployed and went to Hyderabad and Bengaluru in search of a job. He saw a poster of a missing 15-year-old boy from Mysore and contacted the boy’s parents and the concerned police station and gave them wrong information that the missing boy was in an ashram near Jodhpur city and he can help them reach the boy,” said deputy commissoner of police (DCP) (east) Amandeep Singh Kapoor. Assuming the information given by the youth was correct, a head constable and a constable of the Mysore police and the boy’s parents left for Jodhpur on Monday morning along with the youth, whose boarding pass was issued on the basis of a fake identity card. According to a CISF official, the person was not aware that police personnel were also travelling with the boy’s parents, and was hoping to make take money from the missing boy’s father and run away after landing in Jodhpur.

According to Kapoor, it was confirmed in the investigation that the four suspects were two policemen and the parents of the boy. The police filed a case against the youth on the complaint of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) and he has been arrested.

Air India flight from Mumbai reached Jodhpur airport at 11.15am but the return flight got delayed due to the incident.

Air India did not comment on the matter saying the police is investigating the matter.