Held for hoax call to airline, man to get bail today

Khandelwal made a call to the Indigo Airlines call centre in Gurgaon. On getting a negative response,he decided to make another attempt — this time by saying that the aircraft had a bomb on it.

After a thorough check of the aircraft — that lasted for 90 minutes — by security agencies,the Delhi Police arrested the 35-year-old Chandni Chowk businessman at 3 am on August 13. Having spent a day in jail,Khandelwal was produced before a Delhi court the next day and his case was listed for bail before a duty magistrate on Saturday,a senior police officer said.

“While the accused person’s case was listed for bail before the duty magistrate on August 15,it was subject to verification of surety. Khandelwal will be released on Tuesday,” a senior official said.

Khandelwal will be tried under sections 505 1 (B) (statements conducing to public mischief with intent to cause alarm to the public),341 (wrongful restraint) and 182 (false information) of the Indian Penal Code,and his offence might get him three years in jail.

He was travelling in a taxi when he made the call saying there was a bomb on flight 6E 203. “He took a taxi from Chandni Chowk and got delayed because of the Independence Day related traffic restrictions. As soon as the taxi driver realised what his passenger was talking about,he asked Khandelwal to get off. At that point,Khandelwal realised he had committed a big mistake,” a senior police officer said.

After the taxi driver dropped him mid-way,Khandelwal decided not to go to the airport for fear of being arrested by the police. “The Palam police managed to trace his number and spoke to him,and asked him to report to the police station. But he switched off his phone and went to Model Town,” an official said.

“When confronted with the facts,he confessed to having made the call to delay the flight,” Joint Commissioner of Police (Operations) Satendra Garg said.

The entire security apparatus had to be activated at the Delhi airport last Wednesday after Khandelwal called the Indigo Airlines call centre and said there was a bomb in the aircraft. The flight was delayed by four hours and finally took off at 7.30 pm the same day,with 123 passengers on board.