Posing as passengers, 2 GoAir executives steal 53 phones at Delhi’s IGI airport; arrested

Delhi Police have arrested two employees of air carrier Go Air for allegedly stealing a consignment of mobile phones while posing as passengers at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport earlier this month. Police said the two officers, responsible for unloading consignments in cargo, had allegedly put a bag containing about 53 mobile phones on a conveyor belt and walked out with it from the arrival terminal like passengers.

The two executives, employed as senior ramp officers at Go Air, were identified as Sachin Manav (30), who has been serving at the Delhi airport since 2011, and Satish Pal (40), working since 2015.

Deputy commissioner of police (IGI airport) Sanjay Bhatia said that on September 19, a case was filed on the complaint of a manager of a cargo company reporting theft of their mobile consignment containing 53 phones.

“The manager said that his shipment had arrived by a Go Air flight G8-229 from Patna at Terminal 2 of the Delhi airport. The complainant mentioned that due to space shortage, a part of the consignment was shifted to the warehouse. It said that at the time of unloading the consignment in the warehouse, it was found that the shipment had only 30 bags and one bag which contained 53 phones was found missing,” the DCP said.

Bhatia said during probe, CCTV footage from the cargo area was scanned but no clue was found. He said that after technical surveillance of the stolen mobile phones for days, they narrowed down to a possible location where the mobile phones could be found.

“A raid was conducted and two men were caught from Aerocity. They were found allegedly using the stolen mobile phones. When questioned, they allegedly confessed they are working as ramp officers with Go Air. They allegedly said after unloading the shipment, they placed the stolen shipment over a conveyer belt and received the same from the conveyer belt posing like regular passengers at the arrival hall of Terminal 2,” the DCP said.

Bhatia added that eight stolen mobile phones from the lost shipment have allegedly been recovered from the duo’s residence. The two men also allegedly confessed to have sold five phones. “The recovered mobile phones have been seized and both the accused persons have been arrested in this case. Further investigation is going on,” Bhatia said.

Till the time of filing of this report, Go Air did not respond to phone calls, text and mails sent by HT.

First Published: Oct 02, 2018 10:13 IST