Indian man who planted fake hijacking letter to keep flight attendant girlfriend close ends up in jail

Indian man who planted fake hijacking letter to keep flight attendant girlfriend close ends up in jail

[Photo: The Economic Times]

An Indian businessman has been jailed for life after planting a fake hijacking letter in the toilet of a Jet Airways flight from Delhi to Mumbai.

Birju Salla said he had hoped the air carrier would close its Delhi operations and his girlfriend ‑ a Jet Airways flight attendant ‑ would have to move to live with him in Mumbai.

He was also fined about $US700,000.

Salla is the first person to be tried under India's new anti‑hijacking laws.

The legislation carries a minimum sentence of life imprisonment, and a death sentence at its most severe.

The businessman confessed to writing and printing the threat note in his Mumbai office before catching the flight in October 2017.

It said 12 hijackers and several explosives were onboard, and demanded that the flight be diverted into Pakistan‑Occupied Kashmir.

BBC