Pay To Skip Quarantine - Mumbai Airport Scam Busted By Cops

Police on January 15 arrested a 35-year-old sub-engineer along with two accomplices in Mumbai¡¯s Sahar for allegedly collecting Rs 4000 from each flyer arriving at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport who wished to avoid mandatory institutional quarantine, according to TOI.

Police recovered Rs 1.4 lakh cash, 200 Saudi riyals, a fake rubber stamp of home quarantine, few letterheads with stamps and signatures of doctors from some top private hospitals in the bag belonging to Dinesh Gawande. He had been posted by BMC at the airport since December 23. His duty was to check flyers from Dubai, Kuwait and US at P6.

A probe is on to see if officials helped him get the bribes and number of flyers he cleared with false papers. If he is convicted, he could spend 7 years in jail.

TOI

His luck ran out when he ran into a toilet and came back with a bag after pushing aside a lady from the housekeeping staff. This was at 5.50 am.

¡°The woman complained to CISF and MIAL officials after she suspected Gawande, who claimed he was helped by Ashraf Sarang (41) and Vivek Singh (32) from the airport¡¯s duty-free shop in making fake health certificates. The trio was booked under IPC sections for violation of prohibitory orders, cheating, forgery, counterfeiting a mark used by a public servant and under Epidemic and Disaster Act. They are in police custody till January 19,¡± said a Sahar police officer.

Officials then checked his bag and found the items.

¡°Gawande admitted he was collecting bribes. His bank account will be checked. He shared the money with Sarang and Singh,¡± said a police officer.

TOI

Singh¡¯s lawyers Prabhakar Tripathi and Saurabh Mishra appealed to the court for judicial custody. They said he did not have a role to play and only went to assist his team leader.

Police took the statements of flyers Khan Javid Nawab from Andheri (W), Shaikh Shakeel Salim and Khan Arbaz Sattar from Malad (W), Harie Rio John from Nerul (E) and Shaikh Shakir Sakur from Nashik, who flew from Dubai and Kuwait. They said Gawande took Rs 4000 from each of them in exchange for helping them skip quarantine.