12 September,2015 05:00 PM IST | | Neha LM Tripathi
Two Vasai residents were detained by airport authorities for carrying forged tickets so that they could drop off a family member who was flying to London, inside the airport terminal
You might have heard of passengers being deported due to forged passports, visas or other essential travelling documents. Two Vasai residents put a twist to this convention after being detained by airport authorities for carrying forged tickets so that they could drop off a family member who was flying to London, inside the airport terminal.
John Markos D'Monte and Lisborn Lopes had asked a travel agency to provide them papers that resemble tickets, thus helping them in evading security personnel that checked their tickets at the airport entry point. File pic
John Markos D'Monte and Lisborn Lopes, both residents of Vasai, had bought tickets that mentioned their flight to be Vistara Airline's Goa-bound UK 820 that was to depart at 1.25 pm. The duo had asked a travel agency to provide them with papers that resemble tickets, thus helping them in successfully evading security personnel that checked their tickets at the entry point.
Both Lopes and D'Monte had committed the crime in order to drop off their grandfather, who was heading to London in a Jet Airways flight that was to take off at 12.55 pm. John and Lisborn were held yesterday, at about 12.30 pm, when they were trying to exit from the departures gate (Gate 2).
Just then, they were stopped and interrogated by airport security for moving to the city side of the terminal. Since both of them did not have any reason to explain their presence inside the terminal, airport authorities handed them over to the local police station.
An airport official said, "Both of them were taken to Sahar police station as they failed to give convincing answers to the security personnel after being questioned. We were able to monitor the purpose of their activities inside the terminal building through CCTV footage."
A Vistara airline officer told mid-day that it was through them that the e-ticket generated was found to be invalid due to non-payment. ACP Airport Division said, "An FIR was filed against the two people under IPC Section 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property)."
