Sacked driver steals SUV from Mumbai airport premises

Putting serious doubts on the security arrangements in and around the airport, a former driver on contract with a domestic airline stole the company's car from the domestic airport premises in the wee hours of Sunday.

The driver, Rajkumar alias Raja Kondiba Jadhav (29), was arrested on Monday evening. The stolen car was recovered from a garage in Sion and the garage owner, Shiva Nadar, has also been arrested.

According to the police, Jadhav, a resident of Karjat, was sacked last month because he used to remain absent from work regularly. "He went on an unsanctioned leave for 15 days. After he returned, he was removed from the job. However, he had not returned his identity card and entry pass," said an officer from the Airport police station. It was the responsibility of his employers to ensure that Jadhav returns his identity card and entry pass, the officer added.

The police said the incident took place around 2.30am on Sunday when Jadhav entered the airport premises after showing his airport entry pass issued by Crystal Company (Jadhav's employers), which was on contract with Spicejet. "Jadhav went to the official parking lot of Spicejet, sat in a Bolero car and drove it away," the officer added. The vehicle was used to ferry Spicejet engineers from the airport gate to the parked airplanes, the officer added.

"Jadhav zoomed away with the Bolero from gate number 5, and none of the security guards checked him. The security personnel did not even make an entry into their register when the vehicle left the airport premises," said senior police inspector Rajendra Nagbhire.

The company then approached the Airport police station and lodged a complaint. "Jadhav took the vehicle to Pratiksha Nagar where he parked it in Nadar's garage and asked him to change the colour and registration number plate of the vehicle," said Nagbhire.

"An employee of Indigo Airlines who lives in Pratiksha Nagar noticed the vehicle. He informed us and we immediately took Nadir into custody," said a police officer.

"We got Jadhav's mobile number from Nadar and arrested him from Karjat on Monday evening," said Nagbhire.