Hijack scare case: Court rejects CA's bail plea

A chartered accountant, arrested for allegedly creating hijack scare onboard an Indigo aircraft, was on Saturday denied bail by a Delhi court which noted that there was no reasonable ground to conclude that he had not committed the offence.

"In view of the statements of the cabin crew attendants and other circumstances, at this stage, it cannot be held that there are reasonable grounds that the accused has not committed the alleged offence," additional chief metropolitan magistrate Rajesh Kumar Goel said.

Dismissing the bail plea of accused Jitendra Kumar Mohla, the court also took into consideration the fact that the investigation in the matter was still at an initial stage.

"Keeping in mind the gravity and seriousness of the offence, at this stage, no ground for bail is made out," the court observed.

Mohla, 42, has been booked under Section 3(1)(d) of the Suppression of Unlawful Act Against Safety Of Civil Aviation Act, which concerns communicating information knowing to be false so as to endanger the safety of an aircraft in flight, carrying life term as the maximum sentence, besides being slapped with various provisions of the IPC.
    
The court had on Friday reserved the order on bail plea of Mohla, arrested on February 1, after hearing the arguments from prosecution and defence.

The Delhi Police had opposed Mohla's plea claiming that he may tamper with the ongoing probe which is at an initial stage.

His actions, which had caused mobilisation of NSG commandos and delaying of several flights, could not be taken lightly, the prosecutor had contended.

Defence counsel senior advocate H S Phoolka sought the release of accused on bail claiming that he was being made a scapegoat by the police.

He had also claimed that the term "hijack" was used "unintentionally" by the pilot of the Indigo (flight 6E334 from Goa to Delhi) which was overheard by the ATC.

The whole situation was created due to the mishandling by the crew as they were immature and inexperienced and a false story was cooked up to cover up the lapses on the part of all the agencies, including the airline and its crew, Phoolka had alleged.

The prosecution on the other hand claimed that accused created a situation of havoc by his unruly behaviour by supplying threatening information to the crew members.