Asia

'BOM-DEL' Flight Status Inquiry Lands Flyer in Jail

A US national was recently arrested in India for inquiring about ‘BOM-DEL’ - the abbreviation used by airlines to describe the flight route between Mumbai (earlier known as Bombay) to Delhi. The telephone operator allegedly heard the person saying “bomb hai” meaning (there is a bomb in Hindi).
Sputnik

New Delhi (Sputnik) — When Vinod Moorjani made a call to the Mumbai airport for making a query regarding his flight status; little did he know that it would land him in jail.

According to the lawyer of Moorjani, a US national of Indian origin, Moorjani made a call to the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) helpline to inquire about the status of his flight from Mumbai (BOM) to New Delhi (DEL). When he asked the operator about the "BOM-DEL" flight, the operator failed to understand what he was saying and hung up the phone.

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Later, Moorjani along with his wife and children were offloaded from the flight to Delhi. He was arrested two hours later, produced in court on Monday and released on a bail of Rs 15,000.

While Moorjani's lawyer contended that it was a case of misunderstanding between the caller and the telephone operator, MIAL insisted that Moorjani had made a bomb hoax call to disrupt the schedules of the flight as he was upset over the flight delays and was anxious whether he would be able to catch his flight to Virginia from Delhi later in the evening. The concerned telephone operator testified that Moorjani had called up and said "Bomb Hai" (There is a bomb) and instantly hung up before she could ask for clarifications.

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