India plans to punish people making hoax bomb threats against flights

A man is silhouetted against an airport window with Air India aircraft parked in the background in New Delhi, India, Oct. 31, 2023. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

NEW DELHI -

The Indian government plans a new law to punish those making hoax bomb threats against flights, which disrupt the schedules of airlines and cause massive inconvenience to thousands of passengers.

In less than two weeks, more than 120 flights operated by Indian carriers have received bomb threats, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

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Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan said on Monday that the government is planning to introduce legislation that would put offenders on a no-fly list and amend the 1982 Civil Aviation Act so that they can be arrested and investigated without a court order.

On Tuesday, IndiGo, a private Indian airline, said nine of its flights destined for Jeddah and Dammam in Saudi Arabia and some flights from Turkey had received such hoax calls. The flights were diverted to the nearest airports for security checks.

"We worked closely with the relevant authorities and followed standard operating procedures," the airline said in a statement.

The hoaxers have largely gone untraced so far. The Mumbai police said they detained a 17-year-old boy from eastern Chhattisgarh state on Wednesday for allegedly posting bomb threat messages on the social media of various airlines.

Police officer Maneesh Kalwaniya said the boy's motive was to implicate another person involved in a business dispute with him.

The Press Trust of India said 30 domestic and international flights operated by Indian airlines, including IndiGo, Vistara, and Air India, received bomb threats on Monday night alone.

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"Even though bomb threats are hoaxes, things cannot be taken non-seriously," Rammohan said.