MUMBAI/NEW DELHI/AHMEDABAD: In an incident that sent India’s security agencies into high alert, a Jet Airways aircraft on its way from Mumbai to Delhi was diverted to Ahmedabad in the early hours of Monday after an anonymous letter ordering that the flight be flown straight to Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) was found in the business-class toilet by a flight attendant The threat letter on the Boeing 737-900 flight that took off from Mumbai at 2.53am with 115 passengers and seven crew members said there were 12 hijackers on board and if the aircraft landed in Delhi, a bomb placed in its cargo hold would be detonated. After it did an emergency landing in Ahmedabad at 5.30am, the top brass of the security agencies, who had gathered in Mumbai, Delhi and at Ahmedabad airport in readiness to handle a hijack, found the threat to be a hoax.Investigators said the letter was allegedly the handiwork of a 37-year-old platinum card business-class passenger, Birju Kishore Salla , the son of H Kishore Kumar, a prominent jeweller. Salla lives with his parents, wife and two children in the tony 45-storey Shreepati Arcade, not far from Marine Drive.Investigators are working on two theories as to why Salla, a frequent flyer, resorted to the hijack threat: (a) that it was an act of revenge against an airline employee for not responding to his declaration of love for her; and (b) that it was aimed at the airline for having treated him poorly during flights he had taken in the recent past.Following the incident, civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju tweeted that he had advised the airline to put Salla on the No-Fly List immediately, in addition to taking other statutory criminal action. However, there was no comment from Jet Airways till the time of going to press.OP Singh, director-general of CISF, which handles airport security, said, “He (Salla) was handed over to the local (Ahmedabad) police after he confessed to have placed the letter.” But confessions or statements made to the police or security agencies are not admissible as evidence in court.Ahmedabad police said Salla had prepared the letter at his Mumbai office and had then used an online software to translate it into Urdu. “We have despatched a team to Mumbai to seize the computer on which the letter was written and translated,” said a crime branch official. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is set to take over the probe.Salla’s letter, printed on an A4-sized paper in Urdu and English, was left in the tissue paper box in the business-class toilet, said a Jet source. There were only three passengers in business class. The box was covered with a napkin, and the letter was discovered by the stewardess who had gone to replenish the box. The letter read: “Flight No 9W 339 is covered by hijackers and aircraft should not be land (sic) flown straight to POK. 12 people on board. if you put landing gear you will hear the noise of people dlying, don’t take it as a joke. Cargo area contains explosive bomb and wl blast if you land Delhi. Allah is Great.”For close to 50 minutes, from 4.40am onwards when the airline security staff informed the CISF control room about the letter and the flight diversion, security agencies were ready to deal with a hijack. At Ahmedabad airport, the CISF began anti-hijack procedures, the local police was called in, and the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad along with the sniffer dog team came in and took position well before the aircraft touched down. As it landed at 5.30am, it headed to the remote parking bay, as instructed by the air traffic controller. “That was when we felt a bit relieved. Had there been hijackers on board the aircraft wouldn’t have landed in Ahmedabad and obediently headed for the bay of our choice,” said a top CISF official.Soon after it parked in the remote bay, it was surrounded by CISF commandos. The passengers were then deplaned and taken to a remote zone in the terminal building, where they were put through a thorough screening. “The aircraft was declared safe and the passengers boarded again,” said Singh, adding that only Salla was held back. That was because “the Jet crew had told us he was the only passenger who used the business-class toilet,” Singh said.Another CISF official said: “He confessed to keeping the note in the toilet to destabilize operations of Jet.” While the official spoke of a reported love angle, airline sources said Salla, a platinum card member (the most elite of Jet frequent flyers) planted the letter as he felt he had been poorly treated by Jet crew in the recent past.In fact, Salla had also complained to the airline about it. An airline source said: “Jet always sought his feedback and acted on it. He would name particular flight attendants and say they were not pleasant, they didn’t smile, etc. Based on his complaints, Jet had sought explanations from the crew members concerned. He is one of the pampered passengers who used to be escorted from the lounge to the aircraft.”Last year, on July 6, Salla had created a ruckus on board Jet’s Rajkot-Mumbai flight 9W 7129, claiming he had found a cooked cockroach in the breakfast platter of paratha, croissant and fruits served to him in business class. Salla, a vegetarian, had then alleged the flight crew did not offer him medical help and only exchanged the meal for another one. The complaint was later dismissed as false amid counter-allegations that he had planted the cockroach himself.