A Mumbai-based model, Kanchan Thakur was arrested after she raised a bomb hoax at Sahar Airport’s T2 on Thursday night.
She asked the security officials to check her friend’s bag carefully as there might be a bomb inside. She then got into a heated argument with the CISF official.
This prank landed her into a deep trouble, as it not only delayed an Air India flight to Delhi by more than an hour but it could also land her up in jail for up to three years.
She was charged with endangering people’s life by creating a false alarm among the public. Currently, she is out on bail.
Here's what happened
On Thursday night, the 27-year old model was standing in a queue to board the Air India flight 101.
She went through the boarding gate first and when it was her friend’s turn to get checked, she mockingly told the flight security official to check her bag for the bomb.
Hell broke loose and the security guard called the CISF officials and airport staff.
Following this comment, the CISF officials told the AI to offload the luggage of the four and leave without them.
Thakur then apologized about her comment. The security guards seemed unmoved, this landed her in a heated argument with them.
The flight got delayed by an hour and departed without Kanchan and her friends. This delayed one of her friends, who was going to Delhi to see her ailing mother.
All the three people are not permitted to leave the city. “The furious model again had an argument with the CISF and claimed that when real terrorists walk into aircraft they do nothing and when she just cracked a joke, they turned it into such a big thing," said the police.
Later they were taken to the Sahar police station.
"At midnight, officials registered an FIR against Thakur. She took the matter lightly and playing a joke on her friends turned serious," said inspector BT Mukhedkar.
Air India officials backed the FIR as they want to teach them a lesson. They created a panic among people and took the security officials lightly.
The serious charge of IPC section 505(1)(b), which deals with anyone who makes or circulates a "rumour'' intending to cause or which is "likely to cause fear or alarm to the public or to any of its section whereby any person may be induced to commit an offence against the state or against public tranquility" attracts a jail term up to three years. While some lawyers said section 505 is not applicable, other senior lawyers said it was applicable since "intent" or 'mens rea' — guilty mind — was not necessary; a mere knowledge of the consequences of the action which may have induced a person to disrupt public peace was enough to attract this section.
