HSC student arrested for ‘threat message’ to Akasa Air

MUMBAI: The Sahar police on Thursday arrested an 18-year-old HSC student from Surat for allegedly sending a threat message to Akasa Air

MUMBAI: The Sahar police on Thursday arrested an 18-year-old HSC student from Surat for allegedly sending a threat message to Akasa Air.

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The police said the student had written on social media tagging the airline that, “Your Boeing 737 MAX plane will go down.” The police said the youngster from Surat is interested in planes and didn’t understand the repercussions of such a post.

Police officials said after a complaint lodged by the airline, they registered a case under 505 for statements conducing to public mischief and 506(2) (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code against unknown people.

“Police teams started tracing the accused and picked him up within few hours from Surat in Gujarat. His father is a businessman and is said to be interested in planes and keeps watching and reading about planes,” said a police officer from Sahar police station.

“He didn’t have any such plans but wrote the message on social media without understanding its repercussions. He was arrested on Wednesday and on Thursday a court granted him bail on furnishing cash surety of ₹ 5,000 as he has examinations to appear for,” said the police officer.

The Boeing 737 MAX were grounded in 2019 after the two deadly crashes that killed 346 people on board. In India it was again allowed to fly from August, 2021, after which 17 regulators worldwide have permitted operation of Boeing 737 MAX planes.