Security guard held for writing IS threat at international airport

The Sahar police have arrested a 26-year-old security guard for allegedly writing a threat message on the wall of the toilet inside Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) warning of an IS attack on the cargo area on Republic Day next year. The police said that the accused wanted to play a prank.

Four days back, a note with a threat message written on the toilet wall was found by the staffers working in the cargo section after which Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) was alerted and the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) conducted a search in the cargo section and security was tightened.

The Sahar police on Saturday late night arrested Akshay Gaikar,26 from Bhandup for allegedly writing the threat message inside the airport.

Gaikar was promoted as the supervisor and was the in-charge of one of the gate of cargo section. Gaikar was working at the airport since past 1.6 years.

"We checked the CCTV camera footage of the cargo section and found few persons entering and leaving the toilet section. We zeroed down on Gaikar and after sustained interrogations, Gaikar claimed the responsibility of writing the threat message," said a senior Sahar police officer.

"We arrested the accused under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and when we produced him in the court, the accused has been sent to Judicial Custody.

"We have completed the investigations in the case and have concluded that the accused had received a message on WhatsApp which showed a similar such incidence which provoked him to write the message to play prank and have fun looking at the police agencies being probing such incident," said Anil Kumbhare, deputy commissioner of police, zone 8.