Cops seize laptop, printer used by air scare accused
MUMBAI: Policemen from Ahmedabad, on Tuesday, visited the Thane office of Birju Kishore Salla, the businessman who left a note in the lavatory of an aircraft flying from Mumbai to Delhi on Monday morning, threatening to hijack the plane, and seized the laptop and printer that were used to write the note.
Salla, 36, who was detained on Monday for questioning by the Ahmedabad police’s crime branch, was formally arrested on Monday night and charged under the new Anti-Hijacking Act, 2016.
Salla, a frequent flyer with the airline, who was travelling business class, created panic aboard when a flight attendant found a note written in English and Arabic in the aircraft’s lavatory, warning of hijackers on-board and a bomb in the cargo hold. The Jet Airways flight 9W-339, which had left Mumbai at 3.00am, was diverted to Ahmedabad after the pilot informed ground authorities of the threat.
After the aircraft landed at Ahmedabad at around 3.45am, the aircraft and passengers were searched and Salla, who flight attendants suspected of leaving the note, was taken to the crime branch office for questioning.
Salla is reported to have accepted his offence in writing and claimed that he did so for revenge against the airline after a breakfast served aboard a Mumbai-Rajkot flight in July 6, 2016, had a cockroach.
At that time the airline had apologised for the food and offered him a replacement.
Ahmedabad police said he has been charged under the Anti-Hijacking Act of 2016 introduced in July 2017.
Ahmedabad crime branch deputy commissioner of police Deepan Bhadran said, “We arrested Salla at around midnight (intervening night of Monday and Tuesday) and have registered a case against him... All equipment used in making the false threat note like laptop and printer have been seized.”
Police said they will be submitting a copy of the case registered against Salla to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) who will then start proceedings to put him on the national no-fly list.
If Salla is put in the list, he will be the first passenger from India to be debarred from flying.
The ministry of civil aviation has recommended three levels of unruly behaviour by passengers, each with different duration of ban on flying.