MUMBAI, MARCH 20: At the Mumbai domestic airport, the perils of air travel descend not from the skies; here the enemy lurks within. While hijackers inject paranoia into passengers at various international airports, a section of the Jet Airways staff has been using ballpoint pens and other small implements to traumatise passengers boarding flights from Mumbai's domestic terminal.Police say loaders of the private air carrier, all permanant staff, have been regularly prising open luggage after it is checked in and stealing expensive electronic goods and other valuables en route to the aircraft hold.Seven loaders have been arrested - two in February and five in March - with the possibility of more arrests in the offing. This is also the first breakthrough in a string of thefts, which have been registered in 25 complaints since January 1999.The airport police say stolen goods worth Rs 5 lakh have been recovered, adding that they are amazed at the simplicity of the modus operandi. Surprisingly, the bags and suitcases targeted did not show signs of being tampered with but several cases of missing jewellery and electronic goods have been reported to both the police and airline since January.``The loaders had invented a brilliant ploy to rob the items,'' says Sub-Inspector Rajan Chavan, who is investigating the case under the supervision of Deputy Commissioner of Police, Sanjay Saxena.Once the luggage enters the `baggage make-up area', it is handled by loaders who transport it in trolleys to the aircraft cargo hold. It is during Jet's early morning flights to Bangalore, Cochin, Coimbatore and Delhi, that the loaders take advantage of the somnolent security and open the baggage. They prise the smaller bags open by thrusting a pen between the zips' teeth and help themselves to the contents. Then they close the bags by simply pulling back the zips.The suitcases, on the other hand, are simply thrown to the ground with force to break the locks. Once the goods are removed, the loaders manage to lock the baggage in a foolproof manner, Chavan says.On February 26, at around 2 am, he says he noticed two Jet loaders exiting from the domestic airport and entering the parking zone. ``Even in the pre-dawn darkness I noticed that they had stuffed their uniforms with some material. They were carrying electronic goods freshly stolen from a passenger who was about to board a Mumbai-Hyderabad Jet flight,'' Chavan says.He says the trail led to five more loaders while electronic goods and jewellery worth Rs 5 lakh have been recovered till date. International travellers catching connecting flights at Mumbai's domestic airport are, of course, prime targets. The accused are: Nilesh Mudrale (28), Somnath Kale (28), Vijay Padaval (26), Ganesh Doiphode (27), Ravindra Thombre (31), Vishnu Rewale (36) and Pradeep Bhatkar (25). All of them are currently in police custody.Soon after the arrests, there was a surprise in store for C N G Nair, a retired Customs officer who had taken a Mumbai-Cochin flight on May 6, 1999. ``It came as a surprise to me when Jet Airways informed me in Cochin that my stolen jewellery worth Rs 45,000 was recovered by the police. But I still can't understand how the culprits stole the goods from the closed bag so deftly,'' he told Newsline today. His property will be returned only after the next court hearing of the case, scheduled for March 21.
