CCTV helps police nab laptop lifter at Mumbai airport

The CISF at Mumbai airport tracked down a passenger in Patna and arrested him for stealing a laptop from the screening area of the domestic terminal on Sunday. After stealing the laptop of Shashank Gang, a CISF officer said, Jayant Chandra Rai, 45, took a flight to Patna.

Gang had a ticket on a Mumbai-Jodhpur flight at 10.30am. “He put his laptop for X-ray screening but forgot to take it when he left the screening section,” the officer said. “He realised about it after boarding the flight. He called his relatives in the city and asked them to collect it from the airport.”

At 12.30pm, one of his relatives enquired about the laptop at the airline’s counter in the domestic terminal. When the airline officials told us about the laptop, we went through the CCTV footage,” he said. “We found Rai loitering near the security area for almost 15 minutes. After sometime he went to the screening area and took the laptop.” Rai boarded a Mumbai-Patna-Ranchi flight at 11.40am.

The CISF mailed a CCTV grab of Rai to Patna airport. “Two CISF officers, along with the airline staff, found Rai inside the flight in Patna,” the officer said. “He told them that he had mistakenly taken the second laptop. Since the CCTV footage showed him stealing the laptop, he was handed over to the airport police.”