At IGI,six loaders held in as many days for theft

On Monday,a deputy secretary with the Government of India,reported Rs 10,000 missing from his registered baggage. The CISF,whose officials checked the CCTV footage,found that among three loaders who had handled baggage for the flight,two had left the airport much before their work got over on Monday. They were asked to return to the airport.

“While nothing was found on them,their motorbike was searched and Rs 10,000 in cash,a gold coin and a $100 note were recovered,” a CISF official said.

The duo,Kuldeep Kumar and Anup Kumar Rawat,confessed to have stolen the items from three different bags. They worked with a ground handling agency called Universal Aviation and were later handed over to the Delhi Police.

On July 1,two ground handlers,identified as Ravinder and Brajinder Singh,were apprehended by the CISF during random checking after a mobile phone each was found hidden in their socks. The two were handling baggage of Kingfisher’s IT 365 from Lucknow. On June 29,again upon random checking,two loaders were found in possession of two brand new Lava mobile phones soon after the arrival of Hong Kong-Delhi Kingfisher flight IT-0032 at about 2 am. They were later apprehended.

The CISF said it has intensified its vigil inside the airport and is going ahead with random profiling and questioning of the ground handling staff. CISF spokesperson Rohit Katiyar said: “We are coordinating closely with all agencies concerned as well as the airlines to ensure no such cases of theft occur .”