RAIPUR: In a curious turn of events, the passenger who was arrested for raising a bomb scare on a Nagpur-Kolkata flight last month has turned out to be an Intelligence Bureau officer. The flight had to make an emergency landing in Raipur on November 14 when flier Animesh Mandal told crew members that there was a bomb aboard. Passengers were taken off the aircraft, which was thoroughly checked by the bomb disposal squad. Nothing was found.
Mandal, an IB DSP, was detained by IB and state police, and then arrested by Raipur police under Civil Aviation Act and for criminal intimidation under BNS. “We got information that Animesh told the flight crew that his ‘personal asset’ had informed him that there was a bomb on flight which could go off anytime,” Raipur senior SP Santosh Singh told TOI.
He was presented at a court where bail was denied. He told the court that despite being an IB officer, he was arrested. During interrogation, Animesh said he would reveal the name of his ‘source’ only to Modi or US president-elect Trump.
