delhi

Updated: Feb 27, 2018 23:59 IST

A middle-aged woman was detained and interrogated for several hours at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport after she uttered the word ‘bomb’ while getting frisked earlier this month.

The woman, who had reached the airport four hours before the scheduled departure of her flight to Kolkata, was subjected to multiple rounds of interrogation and could not board her flight.

“Her flight was scheduled to depart at 4:55am and she had approached for security check around 1am. Following the incident, senior officers were called in and she was taken away for interrogation,” said a senior officer of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), requesting anonymity.

According to an airport official, a CISF staff was frisking the passenger when the woman shouted at them, “Aap kya check kar rahe ho, mere paas bomb hai?” (What are you checking? I have a bomb?).

“The CISF staff immediately alerted her seniors, who later reached the spot and took her away for interrogation. Her baggage and a co-passenger travelling with her were also offloaded. She was subjected to a pat-down search and her baggage was scanned thoroughly. But nothing suspicious was found. Following this, the suspect and co-passeger were handed over to the local police,” the officer added.

According to the police, they interrogated the passenger and found that the woman shouted the word ‘bomb’ out of frustration. “A diary entry was made and they were let off,” a Delhi Police officer said.

In a similar incident in October 2017, a woman travelling to Leh was detained for saying bomb during frisking.

In February 2016, a Delhi-based exporter and his friend were offloaded after he claimed he was carrying ‘bomb’ in the same flight in which SPG-protected Priyanka Gandhi was also travelling.

The aircraft, which was about to take off, was again checked for explosives and departed 90 minutes late.

The CISF, which is responsible for the security of airport across country said they have to take such incidents seriously.

“Security of airport is of utmost important and such instances are treated as possible threats. The security personnel have to be confident that passenger is not a threat to others,” the officer added.

ENDS