New Delhi: With gold smuggling to India on the rise in past few months, there have been several instances of airline crew being involved in this illegal activity. But the detention of an Air India flight purser in Saudi Arabia earlier this year is proving to be the most complicated case of its kind for both the airline and the staffer's family.
The staffer has been staying at a luxury five star hotel of the Oberoi Group in Jeddah for the past six months. This situation arose as he was not arrested and imprisoned! First the airline paid the hotel bill for some months and later the employee's family started doing that, said an official.
This unprecedented situation arose when an AI cabin crew member went to Jeddah airport on June 3, 2015, to operate AI 964 to Mumbai. Saudi customs found him carrying about 732 grams of gold (worth over Rs 19 lakh at current prices in Delhi). Suspecting smuggling, the employee was detained and his passport confiscated.
".....till date he has been allowed to stay at Trident Hotel at AI cost. The approval for his stay in Trident was given (by a senior official) on June 8, 2015," says an October 7 note by AI's chief vigilance officer (CVO) Shobha Ohatker (VIGHQ/1746) to the airline's new chairman Ashwani Lohani.
"Till date .... the subject (has not) been placed under suspension. It is also not understood how such a huge amount (of over five months' stay in Trident Hotel) will ever be recovered from the crew," the October 7 note, reviewed by TOI, says.
On getting this note, Lohani directed the immediate suspension of the cabin crew member. He ordered that AI will no longer foot the bill for the staffer's stay in the five star hotel and that whatever has been paid should be recovered to the maximum extent possible from the employee.
20/11/15 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
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The staffer has been staying at a luxury five star hotel of the Oberoi Group in Jeddah for the past six months. This situation arose as he was not arrested and imprisoned! First the airline paid the hotel bill for some months and later the employee's family started doing that, said an official.
This unprecedented situation arose when an AI cabin crew member went to Jeddah airport on June 3, 2015, to operate AI 964 to Mumbai. Saudi customs found him carrying about 732 grams of gold (worth over Rs 19 lakh at current prices in Delhi). Suspecting smuggling, the employee was detained and his passport confiscated.
".....till date he has been allowed to stay at Trident Hotel at AI cost. The approval for his stay in Trident was given (by a senior official) on June 8, 2015," says an October 7 note by AI's chief vigilance officer (CVO) Shobha Ohatker (VIGHQ/1746) to the airline's new chairman Ashwani Lohani.
"Till date .... the subject (has not) been placed under suspension. It is also not understood how such a huge amount (of over five months' stay in Trident Hotel) will ever be recovered from the crew," the October 7 note, reviewed by TOI, says.
On getting this note, Lohani directed the immediate suspension of the cabin crew member. He ordered that AI will no longer foot the bill for the staffer's stay in the five star hotel and that whatever has been paid should be recovered to the maximum extent possible from the employee.
20/11/15 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
