Jodhpur: Mid-air drama on Air India flight as hoax caller raises 'terrorists' alarm, trapped, arrested

By Bipin Kumar SinghFirst Published Oct 1, 2018, 8:31 PM IST
Highlights

During interrogation, it was revealed that Gurulingappa was travelling on a fake identification and his real identity was Dinesh Sutar, a Jalore resident. Sutar read about a missing kid in Bengaluru and got in touch with the concerned family, claiming the whereabouts of the missing kid and he would help them in finding

Jodhpur: A mid-air drama on an Air India flight, that led to the detention of six passengers at Jodhpur airport, after landing, turned out to be very filmy.

On Monday, K Gurulingappa, 30, a passenger on board the AI 645 Mumbai-Jodhpur flight, complained of some suspected elements like “terrorists” in the aircraft.

A full blown emergency was activated and the pilot in command of AI 645 informed the Jodhpur ATC.

The plane made a priority landing and the CISF team with a full emergency, took the custody of six persons including the complainant Gurulingappa.

“All QRT personnel cordoned off the flight after landing. A written complaint was given by the captain and six suspected passengers were detained for interrogation. All the other passengers, who arrived, were allowed to go out after proper screening and frisking. Aircraft was also released after a thorough check,” a CISF spokesperson said.

As the information was also shared with the Jodhpur Police, later, the custody of four was given to them.

During interrogation, it was revealed that Gurulingappa was travelling on a fake identification and his real identity was Dinesh Sutar, a Jalore resident. Sutar read about a missing kid in Bengaluru and got in touch with the concerned family, claiming the whereabouts of the missing kid and he would help them in finding.

“He cooked up a story and got in touch with the kid's family. He assured the family of helping in finding the kid and wanted some money for the same,” police sources in Jodhpur, said.

Ashoka N, 38, the kid’s father shared the entire story with Karnataka police and they deputed two of its officers for the job. Ashoka booked a ticket for himself and Sutar. However, the two policemen booked themselves separately on the same flight.

“As soon as Sutar realised that the Karnataka police personnel are accompanying Ashoka, he raised a false alarm and started shouting that there are terrorists on board the flight,” police sources added.

During police interrogation, Sutar accepted his crime. Two Karnataka police officers, who were also detained initially, are Prasanna Kumar Bhagat, 35, and K Gangadhar, 39.

Air India has officially filed a complaint with the Jodhpur police. “We will ask for Sutar’s custody to further probe the incident,” the police source said.

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