The Mumbai Police on Tuesday said that a jeweller arrested for allegedly planting a note in the toilet of a Jet Airways flight warning of hijackers did so because he wanted his girlfriend, who works for the airline, to quit her job and come live with him.
“The accused had planted the note with an intention to close down Jet Airways so that his girlfriend working in the Delhi-based office of the airline would leave her job and come to stay with him in Mumbai,” Joint Commissioner of Police JK Bhatt was quoted as saying by PTI.
Birju Kishore Salla is the first person to be arrested under a tough new anti-hijacking law, which came into force in July and carries a maximum punishment of life in jail, NDTV reported. Under the law, Salla’s properties can be confiscated.
“We are in contact with the National Investigation Agency. The case may be handed over to the NIA if the Centre wants,” Bhatt added.
Last year, Salla allegedly carried a cockroach with him on a Jet Airways flight and then complained that he had found the insect in his meal, NDTV reported.
Salla, the police has learnt, is a multi-millionaire and owns an apartment in posh Mumbai locality. “He is originally from Dedan village of Gujarat’s Amreli district,” Bhatt said.
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