Hijack scare: arrested man sent to 14-day judicial custody

New Delhi, Feb 2 (PTI) The man arrested for creating a
mid-air "hijack" scare in an Indigo flight with 163 passengers
on board here was Monday sent to 14-day judicial custody and
charged with endangering life and personal safety and criminal
intimidation.

Jitendra Kumar, who was reported to be a businessman in
his forties, was produced before the court of Additional Chief
Metropolitan Magistrate Rajesh Kumar Goel who ordered the
judicial remand, a day after he along with two others
including a woman were taken into custody for questioning
shortly after the incident inolving the low-cost air carrier.

Three passengers -- Jitendra Kumar, Samir Uppal and
Harpreet -- were taken into custody after their behaviour
aroused suspicions inside a Delhi-bound aircraft of Indigo
from Goa Sunday forcing the pilot to make an emergency
landing at the IGI airport. Samir and Harpreet were however
released by police.

The pilot had reported to the Air Traffic Control(ATC)
here Sunday evening that a couple of passengers had threatened
to hijack the airplane amid reports that one of them had a
tiff with an air hostess over seating arrangement.

Jitendra has been booked under section 336 (Act
endangering life and personal safety of others) and section
506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) of Indian Penal
Code and Suppression of Unlawful Act Against Safety Of Civil
Aviation Act, 1982. The aircraft had a six-member crew.

Delhi Police was clueless about the motive of the man who
was allegedly in an inebriated condition.

"I do not know why he did it. The motive is not clear.
But when he did it, he did threaten the girl (air hostess) and
caused lot of inconvenience to various passengers who could
not land on time because of the scare," Additional
Commissioner of Police (Operation) Ujjwal Mishra said.

"The scare caused a lot of pain and anguish. So he(Kumar)
needed to be booked and we booked him," Mishra said.

Mishra said in the backdrop of such incidents, air
hostesses should be given power and trained to search
passengers and their belongings "if need be".

"She (air hostess) must be trained to search passengers
if he threatens. She must be trained to search his hand
baggage in case he lets out such a threat. She must have that
power and confidence to do that. This is a sort of training
that Indigo or any other airline should impart," Mishra said.

Mishra favoured giving wider power to cabin crew and
said, "up in the air, you do not have a policeman. It is the
air hostess or cabin crew who are totally in charge and they
must have wider power to disarm passenger if need be". PTI ATP
DEP