Click to play videoMumbai: The Mumbai Police on Sunday arrested three Air India cargo loaders in a diamond robbery case at the city’s high security Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport.
The police may have managed to solve the case but the simple manner in which the theft was conducted has raised some uncomfortable questions for airport security agencies.
The three accused, who are now in police custody, managed to make way with diamonds and precious stones worth Rs 4.5 crore and all this was possible because the accused were familiar with the system in the airport and perhaps knew the security loopholes in the area.
Here is how the heist happened: The consignment came in a Thai Airways flight (TG-317). The container marked ‘precious item’ was then moved to the security area under vigilance since the recipients did not turn up on time. The loaders moved the container in an isolated place and broke it open. The booty was then hidden in a gutter inside the airport premises.
“The booty was hidden inside a gutter since they did not have time to dispose it,” ACP Mumbai Police, Archana Tyagi confirmed.
The robbery may have been solved but it surely raises questions on the security arrangements in the Mumbai International Airport, something that even the police are now admitting.
“Somebody can pay money to these loaders and ask them to plant a bomb. Such questions are now being asked,” Joint Commissioner (Law and Order) KL Prashad said.
Some of the issues that have come up are how did the loaders manage to move the container? Who provided them the instrument to break the container and how is it that nobody noticed when the container was being tampered with.
This time the Mumbai Police managed to crack the case within days but the simple theft has raised complex issues regarding the security of man and material at the Mumbai International Airport.
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