Highlights
- At least 9 persons including BJP MPs Nishikant Dubey and Manoj Tiwari, have been booked.
- They were booked by Deoghar Police for allegedly forcing their charter plane to take off.
- They allegedly entered the Air Traffic Control (ATC) room at Deoghar airport without permission.
BJP MPs booked: At least 9 persons including Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs Nishikant Dubey and Manoj Tiwari, have been booked by Jharkhand's Deoghar Police for allegedly forcing their charter plane to take off, and entering the Air Traffic Control (ATC) room at the airport without permission. As per reports, the MPs pressurized the officials to let their plane take off despite there being no night take-off or landing facility there. MP Nishikant Dubey's two sons have also been booked.
The FIR was registered at Kunda police station on September 1 on the complaint of security in-charge Suman Anand who stated that the said persons violated all safety standards by entering the ATC room and forcing the officials for clearance to take off.
The security in-charge has sought action against the pilot of the chartered plane, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, Kanishk Kant Dubey, Mahikant Dubey, MP Manoj Tiwari, Mukesh Pathak, Devta Pandey, Pintu Tiwary, and Sandeep Dhingra, Airport Director.
According to the complaint filed by the security in-charge, "nine people Nishikant Dubey, Kanishk Kant Dubey, Mahikant Dubey, Manoj Tiwari, Member of Parliament, Kapil Mishra, Sheshadri Dubey Sunil Tiwari, and others had come to Deoghar by chartered plane at 1 pm on August 31. During his return in the evening, others including Dubey forcibly entered the ATC room."
As per the complaint letter, at around 17:25 hrs passengers arrived at the airport to board their chartered plane. They were accompanied by other people who had come to see them off. The security in-charge further states in his letter that Deoghar airport doesn't have an IFR facility i.e. Night Takeoff and Landing facility is not available. On August 31, the local sunset timing was 18.03 hours... air services are to be conducted up to 17.30 hours.
"When I went into the ATC control room and noticed therein that Director of Airport Sandeep Dhingra and the pilot of chartered Plane were already present in the Control Room. As the Sunset time on August 31 was 18:03 Hrs and that may be the reason the above mentioned chartered plane was denied clearance for takeoff by ATC," the complaint reads.
"The above-mentioned pilot was persuading the Airport Director Sandeep Dhingra and the ATC staff for clearance, citing that passengers had to return that day itself. The staff at ATC were communicating over mobile for takeoff clearance," it added.
The security in-charge has mentioned that he was shocked and alarmed due to the presence of passengers in the ATC Room and such actions are a breach of the airport security standards.
"Security in-charge further noticed that the pilot and the passengers were pressurizing that they may be given clearance for the takeoff. As a result, ATC clearance was given. After that, the passengers and the pilot came out of the ATC Control Room, walked towards the chartered plane, and onboarded it. The plane took off thereafter," the complaint letter added.
(With ANI Inputs)
