Airport security is breached again

A Nigerian national coolly walks through the high-security zone

MUMBAI: In the second instance of a security lapse at the Sahar international airport this week, a Nigerian national slipped inside the international terminal, that too from the airport manager’s cabin, on Thursday.

On Monday, a Qatari who was found to be travelling on a fake passport and was to be deported, disappeared from the airport.

According to an airport official, Qasim Dawood Arje, 39, was caught at about 2am on Thursday by immigration officials after he entered Terminal 2A without the permission of airport officials.

Arje apparently entered the terminal through the airport manager’s cabin without being noticed or questioned by anybody.

A garment trader, Arje had come to drop his friend at the airport. After the friend went inside, immigration officials spotted some problem in his passport. So the friend called Arje up for help. Arje entered the airport manager’s cabin, presumably to get an entry pass. But seeing no one there, he coolly walked into the terminal through the manager’s door.
Once inside, he reached the immigration area and started arguing with officers about the passport. He said he was not a newcomer at the Mumbai airport and started dropping names of people he knew.

“It is then that the officers realised he was not a passenger and asked for his entry pass, which he did not have,” said a source at the airport. “The officers then handed him over to the police.

“Arje has been fined Rs5,000 for trespassing under the Bombay Police Act,” said Dilip Patil, senior inspector, Sahar police station.

s_naveeta@dnaindia.net