Mumbai airport CCTVs fail to zoom in on touts fleecing foreigner

Joint efforts of the city police and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) might have led to the installation of CCTVs at domestic airport, Santa Cruz. But it is still not enough, as touts managed to harass a passenger last week at the airport.

The CCTVs installed at the city side of the Mumbai airport to keep an ‘eye’ on the touts were not able to ‘zoom in’ to catch touts trying to fleece a foreigner at the airport on Thursday.

Abdul Gaffar Hamid Ali Khan, 43, and Nathasingh Kishansingh Gill, 46, posed as pre-paid cabbies and tried to cheat the foreigner of $500. They were caught by the public after the passenger raised an alarm.

On January 6 around 11pm K Albert Pope, 39, arrived in Mumbai by a Delhi-Mumbai Indigo flight. He hired a pre-paid cab to go to Sahar airport by paying Rs170. “The passenger had the pre-paid voucher in his hand when Khan approached him and said that he is a pre-paid cabbie and took him to his car,” said an official from Santa Cruz airport police station

After Pope got into the car, Gill also joined him and they left the airport. “Khan told Pope that Rs170 was too less to go to Sahar and demanded “500 bucks” from him. When Pope gave him a Rs500 note he asked for $500,” said the source. Sensing trouble, Pope panicked and asked the driver to stop when they had passed terminal 1A. “The passenger started yelling at the driver and the public joined him,” the official said.

The public managed to catch Khan while Gill fled. CISF jawans rushed to the spot and caught Khan. They handed him over to the police who registered a case against him and Gill under sections 420 (cheating) and 34 (common intention). Gill was also caught on January 8 and produced in Andheri metropolitan court on January 9. They sought bail on January 10.