Passengers and airlines officials on Tuesday justified businessman Birju
Salla
's punishment in the October 2017 Jet 'hijacking' case, saying the verdict would be a deterrent to pranksters.
Though none of the airlines gave any official reaction, officials said that even if the higher judiciary reduces the sentence awarded by the special
NIA court, the message will go out loud and clear that such things will not be tolerated by the ultra-sensitive aviation industry.
Senior officials admitted that they were taken by surprise by the severity of the sentence. "The fact that the accused (Salla), who belongs to an affluent family with access to top
legal eagles
, could not get away with a hijack scare will send a message that if you mess with something as serious, nobody can save you," said an official.
Another official, who handles airline security, said, "According to media reports of October 2017 (when Salla created the scare), he was reportedly after a Jet airhostess and wanted to damage the airline somehow so that she came to him for a job. In July 2016, he had created a ruckus on a Jet flight, saying there was a cockroach in his meal. He did this with the same intent to spoil the airline's image. His punishment may seem stiff, but is fully justified."
Passengers' reactions were no different. Air Passengers Association of India founder D Sudhakara Reddy said, "We were part of the internal committee that examined this issue. Going by the track record of this passenger, the punishment is justified."
Raman Sharma, a Delhi businessmen who travels frequently, echoed the sentiment. "Post 9/11, we are careful not to, even in humour, utter words like hijack, bomb, terrorist or do anything that could create a scare. And here this person went to the extreme point of portraying that the flight had been hijacked." tnn
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