It is the first time in the country that an individual has been sentenced to life imprisonment under the Anti-Hijacking Act, 2016. In addition to that, he has to pay a fine of ₹5 crore.

The accused, Birju Kishore Salla planted a hijack threat letter in 2017 on a Mumbai-Delhi flight.

As per the special NIA court, he did this in a ‘planned manner’ by leaving a hijack threat letter which warned the presence of hijackers and explosives.

The CCTV cameras caught the accused while leaving the note.

In this context, the NIA court sentenced him to life imprisonment in addition to a hefty fine. Furthermore, the accused has to pay ₹one lakh each to the pilot and co-pilot of flight, and ₹50,000 each to two air hostesses.

He also has to pay ₹25,000 to each of the other crew members on board.

The report says that there were 115 passengers and seven crew members in the flight.

According to the NIA chargesheet, Birju Kishore Salla had typed the threat letter at his office and took the printout there.

Then he planted the letter in the tissue box in the toilet of the flight.

He had written as follows: “Flight no 9w covered by Hijackers and aircraft should not be land and flown straight to POK. 12people on board. if you put landing gear you will hear the noise of people dying. don’t take it as a joke…”

He scribbled the Urdu message using Google Translator and wrote in English.

At the time of his arrest, he told the police that he planted that letter to threaten his girlfriend. He thought that Jet Airways would shut down due to the threat so that his girlfriend would quit her job in Delhi and shift to Mumbai to live with him.

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