Jet Airways emergency landing: NIA may take over the case

Senior NIA officials said the agency can take up the case only if the state police registers the case under the anti-hijacking laws.

The Mumbai-Delhi Jet Airways flight made an emergency landing after a note stating that there were hijackers and a bomb on board was found in the plane's washroom. (Image: Representational/PTI)

New Delhi: The NIA is in touch with Gujarat police and may take up the case of a Jet Airways aircraft's emergency landing in Ahmedabad which was allegedly the result of a note found in the plane's washroom that stated there were hijackers on board, agency's chief Y C Modi said here today. Senior NIA officials said the agency can take up the case only if the state police registers the case under the anti-hijacking laws. Modi, a 1984-batch IPS officer, who took over the reins of the country's premier anti-terror organisation -- the National Investigation Agency -- told a press conference that hijacking is a scheduled offence for the NIA. The Mumbai-Delhi Jet Airways flight made an emergency landing after a note stating that there were hijackers and a bomb on board was found in the plane's washroom. Flight 9W 339, which had taken off from Mumbai at 2.55 AM with 115 passengers and seven crew members, landed without incident at Ahmedabad around 3.45 AM. The Boeing 737-900 plane was parked at a remote bay and all 122 people on board safely deplaned. Birju Kishore Salla, the man allegedly behind the scare, has been detained by the Ahmedabad police. "We are in touch with the state police. A call will be taken in a day or two after the police registers its FIR," Modi said. Asked whether the agency plans to question top Hurriyat leaders in the money laundering probe, Modi said the agency will proceed according to the evidence gathered by it and as per the requirements of the investigation. "For us national interest is paramount. We will proceed keeping that in mind," he said when asked whether appointment of Dineshwar Sharma as the Centre's representative for talks in Jammu and Kashmir will affect its probe. Senior officials, however, added that the decision to question will entirely be of the agency. On the question of the "love jihad" issue in Kerala, an NIA official said that Kerala government had sent a list of 89 cases for the agency to probe. The official said among the 89 cases, it has identified nine cases which have "similar" nature as that of the Hadiya case and in six cases it has examined people involved.