Duo with air tickets caught stealing flyers' valuables

MUMBAI: Two passengers, with valid Jet Airways tickets, entered Mumbai airport on Saturday morning, not to take their flights but to rob other flyers��� valuables.
In a freak modus operandi unearthed by security officials at the airport, two people, posing as passengers, were arrested after they tried to steal things from another passenger���s bag, while the latter was busy collecting his boarding pass from the airline counter.The duo later confessed to several such thefts committed at various airports in the country. They have been handed over to the local police.
The drama began around 6 am at the domestic terminal when the two con men ��� Shankarlal Chandra and Vilas Sawant ��� entered the terminal building with genuine e-tickets for Pune and Ahmedabad respectively. However, a casual query by the security guard at the gate asking them for the flight timing, gave their plot away. ������One of them fumbled when asked about the flight time. He suddenly said they had come to reschedule their flights,������ said an airport official. ������The vague reply was enough for the guard to sound the alert,������ he added.
Soon after, CCTV cameras and the vigilance officers were on their toes profiling the movement of the two. ������First they went to the GoAir counter, then moved towards Jetlite ticket counter and eventually Jet Airways counter.
While one of them stood at a distance to keep an eye on the passengers, the other quickly started opening a bag kept on the trolley, while its owner was busy collecting his boarding pass,������ a source said. ������Since passengers believe the airport to be a safer place, many trolleys are left unattended. However, the moment the two tried to open another bag they were nabbed by the vigilance officials,������ the source added.
Officials said the duo confessed to entering the airport in the past on valid tickets, purchased only to make a bigger buck out of stealing passenger bags. After completing their thefts, they promptly left the terminal saying that they had changed their travel plans. Chandra was earlier arrested at Kolkata airport for the same.
The CISF gets almost 4-5 cases every month of thefts within the airport premises.