CISF to use scanner at Delhi’s IGI airport after visitors caught with fake tickets

A CISF official said it is also being planned that airlines ask passengers for some personal details at the time of booking, which they can share with the CISF.

Three men, including a Canadian and an Afghan national, were caught at the Indira Gandhi International Airport by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) commandos on Tuesday for gaining entry on a fake or edited flight tickets to see off fliers.

Passengers IGI Airport’s T2 terminal. (Raj K Raj/HT File Photo)

Taking note of such incidents, the CISF now plans to install a scanner at the entry to help detect if the ticket are a fake.

CISF said at 8.51am on Tuesday, the personnel at Terminal 3 noticed two passengers roaming about the check-in area. The two men, identified as Virender Garg, a Canadian, and Kunal Garg, an Indian, were intercepted and they revealed that they had gained access by showing an edited flight ticket in which they had inserted their names. They did this to see off their relatives who were flying to Bangkok.

Both of them were taken to the IGI Airport police station and handed over to the police for further action, a CISF officer said.

The same day, at 1.21pm, another CISF man at Terminal 3 noticed a foreign passenger roaming the check-in area. The man, Khalid Waziri, an Afghan national, disclosed that he had gained access into the terminal by showing a cancelled ticket to see off his father who was going to Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan , the officer said. The Afghan, too, was later handed over to the police.

“In order to curb the menace, agencies such as the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and CISF are planning to install a scanner at the entry to scan tickets. This will raise the alarm if the tickets are not for the same day’s flight,” a senior CISF officer said.

The officer said it is also being planned that airlines ask passengers for some personal details at the time of booking, which they can share with the CISF.

“We will then have a database of passengers who would be coming to the airport on a given day. If the person’s name is not on the list for that day, his/er entry can be stopped,” the officer said.

This is not the first time a person has managed to gain illegal entry into the airport. On July 29, a Chinese national Yang Juntao was caught from the check-in area of Terminal 3 after he gained access by showing a cancelled ticket to Guangzhou in China.

Two Iranians, Mohammad Pirazizi and Yasimin Yazdanjoo, were caught on July 22 by the CISF for gaining illegal access by showing an edited ticket to Tehran, Iran.