Jet suspends terror suspect for ‘absence from duty’

BANGALORE/MUMBAI: Controversy returned to haunt Jet Airways with its employee, 23-year-old Asmin Tariq, arrested in Britain on Thursday in connection with the thwarted 10/8 plot.

The airline said that it had suspended Tariq for “having not reported for duty for the past couple of days.”

The airline said that British passport holder Tariq was transferred to Jet in March 2006 from G4S — an agency to which it had outsourced services — after the airline ended its contract with the agency for passenger service representatives.

The statement said: “Under UK employment legislation, the Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment Regulations was applicable. This meant that Jet Airways had to take on those employees who had been employed by G4S prior to the airline bringing the contract in-house.”

Jet Chairman Naresh Goyal described ‘Tariq’s act’ as an ‘aberration’. “One person’s wrongdoing cannot be held against the organisation. There are black sheep everywhere,” he said.

Jet Executive Director Soraj Datta said: “Why should it affect us? Tariq was given security clearance by the UK government.”

Sources said that following the development, Goyal was seen in a meeting with Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar at the domestic airport.

Recent events have brought up Jet’s alleged dubious funding again. Last year, its application to the US to operate flights to Newark was turned down after a US namesake alleged an Al-Qaeda connection.