His elder son, Bhavesh Katara, was arrested in February for loot and murder in Jalod village during the post-Godhra carnage in 2002.

According to police officers, the MP landed at the airport just about half an hour before the Toronto flight’s (AI-187) scheduled departure. “It seems it was a ploy,” said a senior airport police officer. His personal staff immediately went to the Air-India counter and requested them to expedite the process as “MP saab was waiting.” “The airport officials immediately issued three boarding passes, for Katara, Kaur and the boy,” said a police officer.

Even the airport immigration cleared the three passports without checking them properly. “It was only later, when the boarding passes and passports were being checked by Air-India officials, that they noticed discrepancies and alerted immigration officials,” said a senior police official.

He added that AI officials found that the pictures and age mentioned in the passports were not matching with those of the passengers.

The three were detained and questioned for four-five hours by officials from intelligence agencies. Later in the afternoon, they were handed over to the airport police for further investigation.

Police are also verifying whether the MP had undertaken any foreign trips with his wife and son earlier and whether the persons who travelled with him then were genuine. The MP has two sons and a daughter.

Kaur is reported to have told officials that her husband was staying in Toronto. Amarjeet told the interrogators that one his uncles was in Toronto.

... contd.