Air passenger remanded in judicial custody

For allegedly threatening to take an IndiGo flight down

A passenger who was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly threatening to take an IndiGo flight down was produced on Thursday before a Delhi Court which remanded him in a day’s judicial custody.

The passenger, Mursalin Sheikh, would now be produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma on Friday for hearing of his bail plea. His counsel on Thursday submitted that he deserved the relief as he was mentally unstable and medical records provided by his family certified his condition.

The Metropolitan Magistrate sent Mr. Sheikh for a day to Tihar jail and directed the police to verify the address of a person who had volunteered to stand as a surety to the accused if he gets bail.

Sheikh, a Mumbai resident, had boarded the IndiGo 6E 196 flight for Delhi. The plane had taken off from Mumbai at 3.15 p.m. and was airborne for about an hour when Sheikh, who is about 40-year-old, has a beard and was wearing a Pathani suit, allegedly got agitated and began to talk threateningly.

When a stewardess made repeated requests to him to sit down, he allegedly slapped her. According to a statement issued by IndiGo, he got violent with other passengers on the flight and further tried to access the front portion of the aircraft and ran towards the cockpit. But his approach was blocked by a food trolley in the aisle. Immediately after this, a group of male passengers intervened to stop him as there were only female crew onboard the flight. Amid allegations of lack of urgency to deal with the situation from the airline’s side, IndiGo in a statement has clarified that the crew made appropriate announcements and deployed security measures to block access to the front of the aircraft. It said the front galley was also secured.

The passenger was finally deplaned at Delhi and was handed over to the Central Industrial Security Force. Later a case of assault, outraging the modesty of woman and criminal intimidation was registered against Sheikh.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/air-passenger-remanded-in-judicial-custody/article4079482.ece