Big B checks in with wrong gun licence

On Saturday morning, Amitabh Bachhan was stopped at Santacruz terminal of Mumbai airport for carrying a gun for which he didn't have the correct licence. The airline resolved the matter without informing the central industrial security force (CISF) or the police. 

The Santa Cruz airport police dashed off a letter to the airline asking them why the matter was not reported to them or the CISF. On December 6, Big B reached Santacruz terminal  to take Jet Airways’ Mumbai-Pune flight slated to leave at 9.30am.  He had a revolver in his check-in baggage. “When the airline staff asked him for the licence, he quickly produced it,” says an airport souce. “However, the licence was that of some other revolver, not the one in his check-in luggage. He told the staff that since he has more than one gun, the licence pertained to another gun which he did not bring with him to the airport.

Subsequently, the gun and the licence was handed over to the actor’s personal assistant who took it back with him while Bachhan took the flight. “If an ordinary person had been found carrying a gun without proper licence I do not think he would have been let off so quickly,” says the source.

Somnath Ghuge, senior police inspector, Santacruz airport police station said that the airline should have informed the CISF or the cops in such a case.  “We have written  to the airline demanding reasons.  Moreover, the Juhu police station in whose jurisdiction the actor lives, has also been asked to verify the licence and the claims made by the actor,” he said.  

s_naveea@dnaindia.net