Air staffer grounded for extortion

Mumbai: An Etihad Airways staffer was arrested by the airport police on Monday for not only allowing a passenger with a forged passport to board the flight but also extorting money from him. Etihad Airways is the national airline of the United Arab Emirates.
According to police officials, this could help them to unearth another human trafficking racket; two Air India staffers were held by the crime branch for human trafficking in March. This is the second time an Etihad official has been arrested for irregularities (the first time, an official was held for `alleged' human trafficking in 2008).
The matter came to light when a passenger, Shyamlal Chand, was deported from Abu Dhabi on Monday and revealed the role of Sanjiv Kumar Gupta, an airline official, in allowing him to board the flight even though he had a false passport. Gupta works as a security agent for the airline and had `allegedly' asked Chand for an additional $200 to allow the latter to board the Mumbai-Abu Dhabi-Ireland flight. The passenger had managed to sneak in through the immigration counter at Mumbai airport.
"The role of the airline official was detected because the passenger was sent back from Abu Dhabi for travelling on a forged passport. The passenger has been detained and the airline official has also been held,'' senior inspector Dilip Patil said. "This could lead us to a bigger racket as we have always suspected the involvement of airline officials in human trafficking,'' he added.
29/04/09 Chinmayi Shalya/Times of India

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Categories: Airports Apr 2009, Foreign Apr 2009