MUMBAI: A man from West Bengal was rescued from a Ethiopian flight (ET 641) bound for Addis Ababa after the baggage it had sent to the cargo area of the city airport caught fire.
Sahar The police then arrested the man, Samir Biswas (31), an ITI graduate of the business school, and four other people who allegedly handed him the luggage containing hazardous materials, including two kilograms of titanium dioxide powder and a five-litre plastic canister of hydrogen peroxide.
The material was discovered when luggage caught fire while being loaded onto the plane before the scheduled departure at 10:59 a.m.
The other four arrested are Nandan Yadav (26) of Andheri, Suresh Singh (46) of Dindoshi, Vishwanath Sengutar (37) of Ambernath and Akhilesh Yadav (28) of Andheri (East).
An investigation has now been launched against the airport’s internal staff who released the baggage after it had been scanned.
DCP (Zone VIII) Dikshit Gedam said, “Investigation revealed that the baggage belonged to Biwas, who had received it from four persons at the airport. The five were arrested under various sections of the BNS and the Unlawful Acts Against Safety of Civil Aviation (Prevention of Unlawful Acts against Safety of Civil Aviation) Act, 1982. The motive for the transport will become clear during investigation. The five were remanded to police custody for five days by the court. One more person is still wanted in the case.”
A police official said Biswas arrived in Mumbai from West Bengal on Friday morning and received three bags at 9 am. Naveen Sharma from Haryana, who is wanted as an accused in the case, is employed as a manager in a Congo-based company and Sengutar works for him in the company. Sengutar received the consignment at a company where Suresh Singh is employed and in turn assigned the work to two others to make the delivery to Biswas at the airport. The accused managed to bring three bags of highly flammable materials through the door. Security checks without being caught, and Biswas boarded the plane before the bags caught fire.
Immediately, various agencies including the Bomb Disposal Squad, Anti-Terrorism Squad, CISF, immigration authorities and Sahar Police took action. Biswas was thrown off the plane. His arrest led to the arrest of the four others. The flight took off after a thorough search was conducted.
In a statement released on Saturday, he said: Ethiopian Airlines said: “On August 16, a fire was observed in a baggage container containing checked baggage for ET 641 at Mumbai Airport while it was being transported from the baggage handling area to the flight. The affected container and baggage are currently being examined by the authorities at Mumbai Airport. The aircraft has been evacuated as per normal Security procedures.”
