Mumbai jeweler becomes first-person to be put on No-Fly list
Mumbai-based multi-millionaire jeweler, Birju Kishore Salla, has become the first person to be put on the "National No Fly List". The 37-year-old, who was arrested last year, had created a hijack scare on board a Mumbai-Delhi Jet Airways flight in October 2017, following which the flight made emergency-landing at Ahmedabad. He was booked under stringent Anti-Hijacking Act which replaced the vintage law of 1982.
Passenger scan be placed under three categories of unruly behavior
Under the revised civil aviation requirement (CAR), a passenger can be considered to be placed under three categories of unruly behavior, with category three bearing the harshest punishment. Salla has been placed under the third category, which says if a passenger's behavior is considered life-threatening like affecting the safety of aircraft then he/she can be banned for up to two years or more.
Internal committee, having members from airlines, probed Salla's unruly behavior
Salla's unruly behavior is probed by an internal committee set up by every domestic airline under the chairmanship of a retired District and Sessions judge. Its members are from different scheduled airlines and passenger associations, consumer associations, and retired officials of consumer dispute redressal forum.
Salla created hijack scare for his girlfriend
A note, placed by Salla in the plane's washroom, stated that there were hijackers and a bomb in the cargo area. He confessed to preparing the note, hoping the threat could make Jet Airways close operations in Delhi and his girlfriend, who works in the airline's Delhi office, comes back to Mumbai. Salla's office and flat are located in a posh locality of Mumbai.
Threat note was printed in Urdu and English
According to the crime branch, the note was a printed note in Urdu and English, asking that the plane be flown straight to POK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir). The reference to POK made investigators suspicious because Pakistan-based terrorists call the area "Azad Kashmir".
