This man has the notorious distinction of being the first on India’s new No-Fly list

• Mumbai-based jeweller becomes the first to enter national no-fly list.
• The man was booked in October for creating a hijack scare on a Jet Airways flight.
  
• He confessed he did it to make his girlfriend move to Mumbai from Delhi.

India’s National no-fly list (NFL) was created eight months ago by the Ministry of Civil Aviation. It has now got its first entry - a Mumbai-based jeweller Birju Kishore Salla, 37, who was behind a hijack scare onboard a Jet Airways flight in October.

Salla becomes the first person to be put on the no-fly list that was enforced last September.

Salla left a note in a business class lavatory saying the Delhi-bound flight was under a hijack threat and that there could be a bomb in the cargo area. The pilot was alerted about the note and the Jet Airways flight number 9W 339 made an emergency landing at the Ahmedabad airport. This incident happened on October 30 last year.

Salla was booked under the stringent Anti-Hijacking Act. He’s the first Indian to be booked under the Act.

The note read “9W 339 is covered by hijackers and aircraft should not land and flown straight to Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (POK). 12 people on board. If you put landing can near the noise of people dying. Don't take it as a joke. Cargo area contains explosive bombs and will blast if you land in Delhi (sic)”.

A passenger can be considered to be placed under three categories of unruly behaviour under the revised Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR), with category three bearing the harshest punishment, said a report in the Press Trust of India.

Salla has been booked under the highest level (three) of onboard disorderly conduct. This has led to the Mumbai-based jeweller to be grounded for five years with effect from November 2017.

All the 115 passengers were deplaned and screened following the landing. No explosives were found on board, and the note was declared a hoax.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said that they will maintain a database for passengers on the NFL. He also said that it was the responsibility of the airline to report such a person to other carriers and then it is up to the airlines either to put the passenger on their NFL or not.

All’s fair in love and war?

Birju confessed that he placed the note hoping the threat would make Jet Airways close their operations in Delhi and in turn lead to his girlfriend moving back to Mumbai. He said that his girlfriend worked for Jet Airways at the Delhi airport, said a report in The Hindu.