Youth held for threatening to hijack Air India's flight

THANE: A youth who allegedly made a threat call to the Air India (AI) call centre of hijacking of an AI flight, was arrested on Sunday.
Mahesh Mina, a resident of Rahatgaon from Madhya Pradesh, allegedly made the call to the call centre of the AI situated at Shreenagar in Wagle Estate, on November 20.
He is believed to have identified himself as someone from ISIS, said a female call centre executive.“Before hanging up the call listen to what I say," he reportedly said. "We have a plan to hijack a AI plane on November 28, and want to de-stabalize India. Don’t take it as a joke as we are from a terrorist organisation.”
Immediately after the call, the police swung into action and started the probe, and first established that the call was from MP.
A team of police from the Shree Nagar police station - led by PSI SG Tungenwar - rushed to MP to trace the caller and located him in Rahatgaon - a village in Harda district of MP. The village was like any other village having a population of around 10 to 15 thousand.
The youth was taken into custody and interrogated, and he eventually confessed to making the call. The boy studies in the 12th standard. He comes from a family of farmers and is one of three sons.
The deputy commissioner of police Zone-V - Vilas Chandanshive - said that preliminary investigations revealed that the youth had made the call. Other issues relating to the call and the youth - including if he was prompted by anyone, or if any others were connected with the youth and if the ISIS terrorist outfit indeed has any role to play in the act of the youth - are being probed by the police, he said.
Chandanshive further added that even though the youth informed the police that he had made the call 'just for fun,' the police were taking the matter seriously and the ATS and the IB were also involved in the interrogation of the youth who has been remanded into police custody till December 02.
The police also said that the youth had three sim cards with him, and said that he had found them abandoned. Chandanshive explained that AI had given a blanket permission to the investigating teams to travel free of cost to any part of the country for the purpose of investigations.
The youth has been booked under sections 505(1)(B) and 506(2) of the Indian Penal Code.