Jitender Kumar Mohla

CA gets life term for hijack scare on a 2009 flight New Delhi: A Delhi court on Tuesday awarded life term to a chartered accountant who had created a mid-air hijack scare on a Goa-Delhi Indigo flight in 2009. The 45-year old chartered accountant Jitender Kumar Mohla had triggered the hijack alert in February 2009 on the flight when he threatened the crew and passengers mid-air by claiming that he had "infected" needles and gun.

The court had on October 25 convicted Mohla under section 3(1)(d)of the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against Safety of Civil Aviation Act of 1982 which deals with offences on board an aircraft and various IPC Section. District Judge IS Mehta, however, acquitted Mohla for the offence under the Anti Hijacking Act as nothing incriminating was found from his possession when he was arrested on February 2, 2009.

"Since, nothing was found in the possession of the accused at the time of his arrest and there is no evidence on record to show that the accused entered into the cockpit, the prosecution case under section 3 (2) and 4 under the Anti Hijacking Act 1992 fails," the judge said while convicting him on October 25.

According to the police, Mohla had allegedly entered into the cockpit on February 1, 2009 and had sparked panic by claiming that he has hijacked the plane while he was on the flight....more    
01:46 PM, Oct 30, 2012