CISF decides to frisk all airport workers, 1 held

Following the sudden spate of thefts inside the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), security agencies have decided to frisk every employee coming out of the airport.

Following the sudden spate of thefts inside the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), security agencies have decided to frisk every employee coming out of the airport. Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which is responsible for IGIA’s security, has made it mandatory for all airport employees to undergo frisking before they leave.

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“We have separate entry and exit gates for Terminal 3 staff, where most thefts have taken place. Earlier, the staff used to simply walk out of the airport after their duty hours. But now, we have asked our men to frisk every employee before he or she leaves the airport,” said a senior CISF officer.

The CISF also caught one of the loaders with cash during their drive. “When he saw our men checking the loaders at the exit gate, he tried to flee. During the search, we recovered some cash from him which he had stolen from a passenger’s baggage,” the officer added.

The move comes a day after HT reported about the rising number of theft cases at the IGIA.

“The CISF is not responsible for the safety of registered baggage. It is the airline’s duty. But since incidents like these are taking place in a high security zone, we are taking some preventive steps,” the officer added.

Many security agencies suspect the involvement of loaders working for different ground handling agencies in the cases. There are over 1,500 loaders working inside the IGIA.

“They unload the baggage from the aircraft, load it in a crane and bring it to the terminal. The thefts take place when they unload the baggage from the crane to put it in the inline baggage system,” the officer further said.