City briefs

Hoax call delays Jammu flight
A Jammu-bound Indigo flight was delayed by at least an hour after the airline’s call centre in Gurgaon received a call at about 10.30 am warning of an explosive device being planted on the flight,scheduled to depart in the next 20 minutes.

The Airbus 320,with 180 passengers already on board,was parked at Bay Number 9,and scheduled to take off at 10.55 am. As a mandatory security drill,passengers of 6E552 were immediately asked to deboard the aircraft and all luggage was taken off. There was no cargo in the flight,airport sources said.

A bomb threat assessment committee was formed to assess the nature of the call,and primary investigations made the committee declared the call as ‘non-specific’,meaning the bomb threat was a hoax. The passengers were later subjected to full frisking for a second time and all bags were screened again before the flight left for Jammu at 12 pm. The flight went to Srinagar from Jammu.

“We received a call at our call centre,informing us of a security threat on IndiGo flight 6E552 from Delhi to Jammu departing at 10.55 am. Keeping passenger safety in mind,a mandatory security drill was carried out as per directions of the security agencies,” IndiGo Airlines president Aditya Ghosh said in a statement.

A case has been registered at the Udyog Vihar Police Station in Gurgaon and the call has been traced to Madhya Pradesh.

Nod for nine more liquor vends in city malls
Another month and people in more parts of the Capital will be able to walk into their neighborhood mall to buy liquor. On Thursday,the Delhi government approved the first lot of applications for liquor vends inside malls and district centres. “Selected malls in the city will sell liquor soon. Fourteen malls applied for the licence of which nine have been shortlisted,” Excise Minister A K Walia said.