The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : 10 criminal cases registered at airport police station

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Wednesday, Jun 18, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

10 criminal cases registered at airport police station

Raghava M.

Three days ago, a passenger lost a mobile phone after baggage scanning

A private airliner staff was arrested and the phone recovered
On Tuesday, a woman complained that a passenger molested her

BANGALORE: A 24-year-old passenger allegedly molested women co-passengers and an airhostess in an aircraft that arrived from Chennai. An employee of a private airliner was caught for allegedly stealing a costly mobile phone from the baggage of a passenger while it was being scanned. A driver of a taxi was arrested for allegedly assaulting a woman who refused to pay a fare in excess of what the meter showed.

These are among the first 10 criminal cases registered with the new police station attached to the Bengaluru International Airport.

Three days ago, according to the police, a passenger complained that he had lost his mobile phone kept in a bag after it went through the baggage scanning machine. The police swung into action and went through the closed circuit television footage of the area where the baggage scanning was carried out.

“We could clearly see Nagaraj (22), an employee of a private airliner, removing the mobile phone,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (North-East) Basavaraj Malagatti told The Hindu. The police recovered the mobile phone and arrested the employee. He was remanded to judicial custody, Mr. Malagatti added.

The latest one was registered on Tuesday with a woman lodging a complaint that that a co-passenger molested her on the way to the terminal building after getting off an aircraft. The complainant had slapped the accused, Narayan (24), following the incident, it was said.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (BIA police sub-division) B.B. Ashok Kumar said that the accused also molested two other passengers and an airhostess in the aircraft before landing. The accused was allegedly in inebriated state when he was arrested.

Reports of harassment by taxi drivers have become common even at the new airport. The police have been receiving complaints against taxi drivers.

In one such case, a taxi driver allegedly asked two women passengers, who hired the taxi from Koramangala to BIA, to pay one-and-a-half times of the actual fare of Rs. 660.

There were heated arguments between the driver and the women when the latter firmly said that they would pay the fare shown on the meter.

The police said that one of the passengers, during the argument, slapped the driver, who, in turn, hit her in the abdomen. Following this incident, she was admitted to a private hospital. The police have arrested the driver involved in the incident, the police said.

Difficulty

The police also received complaints from passengers about the difficulty in locating the police station, which is situated four kilometres away from the passenger terminal building. “It will be difficult for them to come to the police station in the night,” Mr. Malagatti said.

“We are trying to resolve some of the teething problems that we are facing in maintaining law and order and security at the airport and surrounding areas,” Mr. Malagatti said.

The police station is among the 10 that are included under the new North-East Police Zone.

Of these 10 police stations, six have been set up. The others are yet to get infrastructure and police personnel. Of the sanctioned staff strength of 87 policemen for each of the 10 police stations, only 25 policemen have been posted at each of the police station. However, police personnel are yet to report to duty in Kodigehalli, Kottanur and Amrutahalli police stations.

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