After creating a flutter asking the airhostess if he can take a selfie with the pilot or even with her, a passenger flying business class from Dubai to Hyderabad on an Air India flight landed behind the bars here on Tuesday. Thirty-five-year-old Hyderabadi Yousuf Sharieff even gave a scare to the airhostess claiming that the flight had been hijacked. Though he later told the police that he was just trying to pull her leg, the Shamshabad police slapped a criminal case against him. Sections 504 (intentional insult to prove breach of peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of Indian Penal Code were invoked against him. Sharieff from Tappachabutra in the old city went to Dubai five months ago to work in a drilling company. A graduate in commerce, he worked as a driver in a realty company and after doing some odd jobs managed to secure a job overseas. The company he worked for reportedly arranged the flight ticket. “It seems he had a haemorrhoids problem and couldn’t sit in the chair for long,” said Shamshabad ACP R. Sudarshan.
An hour after the takeoff, he repeatedly rose from the seat and started walking in the flight. He started a conversation with the airhostess and asked if he could take a selfie with the pilot.
“Can I enter the cockpit and talk to the pilot. If it is not possible, can I take a pic along with you,” he asked, according to the police. When the airhostess made it clear that he cannot do so, he said in a threatening voice that the plane was “hijacked”.
Arrested at RGIA
“Even as the airhostess was taken aback, he calmly returned to his seat and said he just played a prank,” the ACP said. Soon after landing at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Shamshabad, the airhostess alerted the authorities about the passenger’s eccentric behaviour.
The police were called in and based on the complaint given by the officials, the RGIA police arrested him after booking a case.
