Upset over diversion, Dubai engineer falsely tweets Jaipur plane hijacked, arrested

The man falsely claimed the plane was "hijacked" .(Representational Image)

In a shocking incident, a Dubai-based engineer was arrested at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Tuesday after falsely tweeting that a flight he was on had been hijacked.

The engineer, identified as 29-year-old Moti Singh Rathore, was reportedly upset over a diversion of his flight when he was flying from Dubai to Jaipur. The flight had been diverted due to bad weather conditions. Unhappy with the explanation, Rathore argued and reportedly fought with the airline staff over the sudden diversion.

When the flight was diverted to Delhi, the passenger tweeted tagging Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia that his plane was “hijacked”.

Airport and police personnel took cognizance of the tweet and evacuated the plane and performed all safety checks. The plane was checked and after clearance, it departed at 1.40 pm. It had landed in Delhi at 9:45 am. Officials also confirmed that no hijacking had taken place and that the situation was under control.

Rathore was deboarded and arrested. He later tweeted saying he “mistakenly” used the word hijack and posted it because he was angry at the diversion, police said.

DCP (IGI Airport) Ravi Kumar Singh said, “Rathore was deboarded with his bags and the staff handed him over to us. We received a complaint about the tweet and unruly behaviour. An FIR has been registered against him under IPC sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 505 (1) (b) (act with intent to cause fear/alarm), and 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication).”