IndiGo staffer makes hoax call about bomb in Mumbai flight, arrested

NEW DELHI: IndiGo is facing the heat yet again. A  23-year-old staffer of the airline was on Sunday arrested for making a hoax call regarding a bomb in a Mumbai flight at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport.

The accused, identified as Kartik Madhav Bhat, wanted to teach a lesson to the airlines since he had been warned about his poor performance, they added.

On May 2, a call about a bomb on a Mumbai-bound flight was received at the IndiGo Airlines Office in the Cargo Complex at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA).

Subsequently, a couple of Mumbai bound flights from IGI Airport were checked physically. The call was later declared as a hoax.

The police zeroed in on Bhat, a resident of Pune, on the basis of the number from which the call was made and nabbed him.

During the investigation, it was found that after passing his intermediate examination, the accused did Diploma in Hospitality and Aviation from Frankfinn Institute in 2013, the police said.

Thereafter, he started working in the aviation sector and was currently employed with the IndiGo Airlines as Customer Service Officer at the Pune airport, they said.

During interrogation, he revealed that his job performance was not up to the mark and he had been given verbal notice to improve his performance in three months or face departmental action, said Sanjay Bhatia, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Airport).

He got depressed and made the call out of frustration and to teach a lesson to the airlines, the officer added.

The SIM card used for making the hoax call has been recovered from the possession of the accused, the police said.

IndiGo airline has been facing flak for incidents like manhandling a passenger and security breach where a passenger was made to board a wrong flight. 

In the latest incident, the airline offloaded a passenger from a flight alleging unruly behaviour with crew members. The passenger had repeatedly complained about mosquitoes in the aircraft.

(With inputs from PTI)