Ajay Kadam (name changed) would be on his toes the next time someone at the airport screens his handbag. For, a lighter was ‘deliberately’ kept in his bag after an altercation with a CISF personnel.
It’s not advisable to lock horns with people in power. That’s probably the lesson learnt by a security officer with national carrier Air India (AI) after his tryst with a Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) official earlier this month. Ajay Kadam (name changed) would be on his toes the next time someone at the airport screens his handbag. For, a lighter was ‘deliberately’ kept in his bag after an altercation with a CISF personnel.
Around 12.45am on December 7, Kadam checked in to board his Mumbai-Newark flight (AI 191), which was scheduled to depart at 1.30am. After his handbag was screened at the security area, a CISF official asked him to open his bag again. “He said the X-ray machine showed images of something black and white,” a source from AI told DNA.
Kadam knew that the black thing were coins kept in a pouch and opened his bag again. “Kadam was then told that the coins were seen as bullets in the X-ray scan. He was taken aback since the shape of bullets is different from that of coins,” the source said. “Since Kadam is a security official, he questioned the CISF as to how the coins can appear as bullets. This did not go down well with the CISF and they scolded him.”
Kadam’s woes did not end there. He was sent back from the boarding gate since the tag on his baggage did not have the CISF’s ‘checked’ stamp. He then approached the CISF officials. Kadam’s only mistake was that he left his bag with them while he approached his seniors. On his return, a senior CISF official, who accompanied Kadam, asked two guards — PSI Gulshan and PSI Srivastava — to stamp the tag.
“The guards said they felt something was suspicious and wanted to re-check Kadam’s bag. When they opened it, they found a lighter in it,” the source said. “Having spent years in the airline security, Kadam knew that he cannot carry such articles on board. He was sure the lighter was deliberately put by the two angry officials.”
The CISF commander, who came along with Kadam, knew what had happened and resolved the matter on the spot.
But Kadam was in the mood for revenge. He wrote to the security agency to check the CCTV footage and demeaned that the recordings be handed over to him. He wanted to punish the culprits. “This is not some minor incident. Today, they kept a lighter to implicate him; tomorrow they can put something that can endanger the security of passengers,” the source said.
Kadam has even written to the bureau of civil aviation security (BCAS) and AI, but no action has been taken till date. “We are conducting an inquiry. If found guilty, action will be taken against the culprits,” said Shiv Kumar, CISF commandant.
Advocate YP Singh finds it strange that the lighter was not detected during the X-ray screening. “How did the lighter pass through the X-ray machine? A BCAS inquiry is required,” Singh said. “Carrying banned items on board is not an offence unless the person had a malicious intention. Concealment is an offence under the Aircraft Act and Rules.”
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