The Hindu : New Delhi News : Industrialist booked for ‘stealing’ BlackBerry

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Wednesday, Nov 04, 2009
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New Delhi

Industrialist booked for ‘stealing’ BlackBerry

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Sanjay Somany, managing director of a glass manufacturing industry, ran into trouble on Monday after he allegedly picked up another passenger’s BlackBerry phone at Delhi airport.

According to the police, they received a complaint from N. K. Puri on Monday alleging that his BlackBerry phone had been stolen. The complainant was to board an IC 688 flight to Mumbai that was scheduled to take off at 6-30 a.m.

Acting on the complaint, the Central Industrial Security Force personnel checked the closed-circuit television camera footage and noticed a man picking up the phone at the security check-up point. He was identified as Sanjay Somany, the managing director of Hindusthan National Glass & Industries Limited.

In a statement, the company said: “It was merely a case of confusion in mobile identification by Mr. Somany during security check. He had picked up the BlackBerry as it was the same model. The issue has been sorted out very amicably with the owner of the phone.”

Mr. Somany, who had boarded a flight to Chennai, was stopped at the destination point. However, he said he had some important appointments and would be available later. He was on his way back on Monday evening when he was stopped at Delhi airport and questioned. After watching the CCTV footage, he purportedly confessed to having accidentally lifted the phone.

At Mr. Somany’s instance, security officials recovered the phone from the toilet of the flight from which he had returned to the Capital.

“He said that he picked up the phone by mistake. He panicked when he found it in his pocket on his way back and hid the phone in the toilet,” said a police officer.

However, Mr. Puri, who works with a multi-national company as a senior executive, insisted that a case be made out.

Subsequently the police registered a case and booked Mr. Somany.

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