The Hyderabad airport authorities are investigating a hoax email claiming that a Dubai-bound plane was under threat of being hijacked, based on which three passengers were offloaded and detained for interrogation by the RGI Airport police on Monday, October 9. Police said that the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport authorities received an anonymous email claiming that a passenger travelling to Dubai was an informer of Pakistani intelligence agency ISI. It specifically named one of the passengers, Thirupathi Baadineni, saying he worked for ISI and was planning on hijacking the aircraft. The email was sent to the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport’s Operation Control Centre (AOCC).
The email reportedly claimed that the passenger planned to hijack flight AI951 from Hyderabad to Dubai with help from other people at the airport. “If possible, catch them otherwise today is a big day for India,” read the email. It also claimed that Thirupathi had his ISI contacts stored in his phone.
The airport’s Bomb Threat Assessment Committee offloaded Thirupathi and two others, Vinod Kumar and P Rakesh Kumar, and handed them over to the RGIA police for interrogation. The First Information Report (FIR) noted that the woman who came to drop off Thirupathi was also interrogated.
“So far, we haven’t been able to link Baadineni and others with any links to the ISI. But we are trying to hunt down the email sender to determine the validity of the claim,” said RGIA police Sub Inspector B Suman. Further investigation is underway.
A complaint was filed by the airport’s Chief Security Officer BSN Reddi, and a case was registered against an unknown person under Sections 385 (putting persons in fear of injury in order to commit extortion) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).