A trainee ticketing agent of British Airways was arrested for making a hoax bomb call to stop the flight of his friends' girlfriends to the SpiceJet call center at IGI Airport in Delhi on Thursday. The accused person has been identified as Abhinav Prakash, a resident of Dwarka.
The Delhi-Pune SpiceJet was scheduled to depart from the IGI Airport at 6.30 pm on Thursday. Minutes before takeoff, a call was received at the SpiceJet reservation office about a bomb in the aircraft.
According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI Airport) Ravi Kumar Singh, , the accused disclosed that his childhood friends namely Rakesh @ Bunty and Kunal Sehrawat who recently went on a road trip to Manali, became friends with two girls in Manali. SR
Both the girls were departing on January 12 to Pune via flight No. SG-8938 of Spicejet. His friends told him that they wanted to spend some more time with their girlfriends and instigated the accused to find out a plan to somehow delay their departure from Delhi. “In pursuance of the instigation, all three formulated a malicious plan of making a hoax bomb call at the call center of SpiceJet, with an ulterior motive of getting the flight canceled. The accused immediately called Spicejet Airline customer care phone number from his mobile phone and passed on the message that “there is a bomb in flight SG-8938”, the police said.
After receiving the call on Thursday, the airlines had halted the departure and conducted a thorough search at IGI airport. But authorities did not find anything suspicious on the plane. "Security officials thoroughly inspected it and did not find anything suspicious. The call was later declared as hoax," SpiceJet spokesperson said.
The flight, having 182 passengers and crew members, was immediately taken to the isolation bay. All the passengers and their luggage were properly checked and frisked by the CISF, the officer said, adding that the aircraft was also thoroughly checked and no suspicious item was found. After receiving the complaint, a case was registered under relevant sections, they said.
When Sehrawat and Rakesh got to know about the news of Prakash's arrest, they fled and since then efforts are being made to arrest them, police said, adding that Prakash was working as a trainee with British Airways ticketing centre in DLF Qutub Plaza, Gurgaon for the last seven months.