False bribery charge against airport officials

Kolkata: A frequent flier from Myanmar brought false charges of bribery against two contractual staff at the city's airport early on Saturday. Police said the passenger, a businessman from the country, levelled false accusations against them to avoid paying Rs 1,300 for excess hand baggage.
M Kudus, who was booked on Saturday morning's Thai Airways flight, reached the checkin counter as scheduled and declared that he was carrying additional baggage, for which the airline charged him Rs 1,700 and handed him a receipt.
He proceeded for the security check, where he was stopped by the staff as they suspected his hand baggage exceeded the stipulated limit of 8 kgs. He was sent back to the check-in counter.
There, he claimed that he had already paid Rs 1,300 - the amount payable against the excess weight of a flier's cabin luggage - to the two employees.
When the airline staff denied the allegations, Kudus complained against the duo to the Central Industrial Security Force officers (CISF), who took Kudus and the two staff to the police.
Police interrogation revealed that Kudus was a regular flier and was well aware of the rules. "It's unlikely that a regular flier will be asked to bribe the staff to clear his baggage," an officer said.
On being cornered, Kudus admitted his 'mistake' and excused himself calling the entire episode a mere "communication gap" .
Finally, he was able to catch the flight after paying for the excess cabin luggage. He, however, paid around Rs 400 to the two staff as bakhsish, he said.
24/08/08 Arpit Basu/Times of India

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Categories: Airports Aug 2008, Foreign Aug 2008