New Delhi: In a one-of-a-kind incident for any Indian airport, a man armed with a fake ticket managed to sneak into New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport and strangely, managed to stay there for a full 10 days. The incident is also being considered as a major security breach as the incident occurred barely days before the Republic Day, when security is at the highest level.
The incident relates to January 11 when the man, Mohammad Abdullah, who hails from Hyderabad and claims to be working for a company in Gurugram (formerly Gurgaon), entered the IGI with a print-out of a fake Etihad ticket for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and managed to stay in the international terminal of IGI Airport for 10 days, unnoticed by airport staff and security personnel.
It was only after a housekeeping staff noticed him and alerted the CISF security personnel that he was arrested and handed over to the Delhi Police on January 20. Ironically, the major security faux pas was not the man’s first attempt. As it turns out, Abdullah’s fake ticket was found to be forged when he attempted to check-in at the Etihad counter after having made it inside the airport. The matter was reported to CISF who let him off.
Not one to give up, he took another printout within an hour and re-entered the airport from another gate. This time, he went unnoticed and stayed there for 10 days.
"It was a one-off incident, a first for any Indian airport. Abdullah said he was turned away once but re-entered the airport," a CISF official tolf media.
After the housekeeping staffer found something fishy about him and informed CISF that he had been noticing the man at the terminal for past few days, a team of armed guards took him out of the terminal and all agencies concerned, including intelligence, were informed about the matter, a report in The Times of India said.
This time he was arrested by Delhi Police and was charged for trespassing.
"Abdullah was jointly interrogated by the police and intelligence agencies. He revealed that he had been waiting to receive some money to fly to UAE. He was arrested under relevant sections and an FIR was registered against him," said a senior police officer.
This is not the first time such incidents have been reported. Around two dozen passengers have been arrested for unauthorised entry at the IGI airport this year only. About 20 such cases have been recorded this year and more than 50 people were caught holding fake tickets last year.
