IB officer’s arrest in bomb hoax case highlights absence of special aviation court in Chhattisgarh

Arrested in Raipur Jail, Animesh Mandal, 44, Deputy Superintendent of Police IB, was arrested on November 14 by the Raipur Police. Representative file image.

The arrest of an Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer for allegedly raising a false alarm about a bomb on a plane that led to its emergency landing in Raipur in November has revealed the absence of a special court notified to hear cases related to Civil Aviation security. Chhattisgarh.

Arrested in Raipur Jail, Animesh Mandal, 44, Deputy Superintendent of Police IB, was arrested on November 14 by the Raipur Police. On that day, he was said to have shared “information” with the flight crew about a “bomb on the flight” from Nagpur to Kolkata. There were 193 people on board when the flight was scheduled to land in Raipur, which would take 20 minutes to land. During the investigation, the police found his claim to be false, said Raipur Senior Superintendent of Police Santosh Singh.

Mr. Mandal was booked under Section 351(4) (criminal intimidation by anonymous communication, or taking precautions to conceal the name or residence of the person from whom the threat originates) of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, 2023, and provisions of the Suppression of Unlawful Activities Against Safety of Civil Aviation Act, 1982.

However, since Raipur does not have a special court to hear cases under the civil aviation Act, a writ petition seeking interim relief before the Bilaspur High Court will be filed on Wednesday, said Mr Mandal’s lawyer Faisal Rizvi.

“There is a decision of the Supreme Court in 2022 which states that all cases under special laws can only be heard. It may take up to one month for the court to be notified. We will ask the court to give him help until a special court is established,” said Mr. Rizvi.

The senior lawyer also said that the client simply shared the information he received in the text message, and then showed the message to the police. “He was just doing his job as an IB officer. He even told the police that he was in intelligence [service] then he showed his ID and asked them to speak to his management at the center but he was denied the same,” said Mr. Rizvi.

However, the police dismissed the allegations. According to Mr. Singh, Mr. Mandal was interrogated in front of the IB police and after a thorough investigation, the police, along with the accused’s colleagues, concluded that the information was false.