A 48-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly impersonating a pilot of Lufthansa Airlines to get preferential treatment. Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI Airport) Sanjay Bhatia said that the accused, Rajan Mahbunani, is a resident of Vasant Kunj and runs a consultancy firm.
The police said that on Monday, Chief Security Officer of Lufthansa Airlines reported that one passenger, wearing the uniform of a pilot and intending to travel to Kolkata by Air Asia, was found suspicious. When he was questioned, it was found that he was pretending to be a pilot and was not enrolled in Lufthansa Airlines.
“A search revealed an ID card bearing the name of Lufthansa Airlines. It was found to be fake,” Mr. Bhatia said, adding that based on the complaint, a case was registered and the man was arrested.
During interrogation, he allegedly told the police that he pretended to be a pilot because he was a frequent flyer and wanted to gain easy access during the security clearance and enjoyed preferential treatment from the security agencies and airlines. “He used to get into the passage, which is normally used by the crew members for getting into the aircraft. He wanted to escape the long queues. Sometimes he managed to get his seat upgraded as well,” Mr. Bhatia said.
It was also discovered that the accused was fond of wearing uniforms of different professions and getting himself snapped in different poses.
“There are pictures of him posing as an Army Colonel in his phone. It also revealed that the passenger had shot videos wearing different uniforms on the video-sharing application Tik Tok,” Mr. Bhatia said.
