The Airport Authority of India (AAI) has received approval from the Public Investment Board (PIB) to install full-body scanners, which will decrease passenger frisking time in half. These full-body scanners will be placed at four airports around the country, including Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, and Goa.
In July, the government floated a tender to procure 131 full-body scanners, which would reduce the average passenger frisking time to 15 seconds from the current 30 seconds, and 600 new hand baggage scanners at airports run by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for more than Rs 1,000 crore, but it was later withdrawn due to PIB clearance.
The accused, identified as Mohammed Inam, Banti Kashyap, Lalith Kumar Kashyap, and Mohammed Saad were caught in possession of the country-made weapon, two magazines, 14 live rounds, 508 kg of marijuana and two cars.
Mohammed Inam and Mohammed Saad belong to Muzaffar Nagar of Uttar Pradesh State while Banti Kashyap and Lalith Kumar Kashyap are residents of Haryana’s Panipat.
“Mohammed Inam is an Inter drop-out addicted to bad vices and a lavish spending lifestyle. He committed many property offences and was arrested several times by the UP Police. Mohammed Inam and Saad have been involved in illicit transportation of ganja from Araku valley of Visakhapatnam, AP State to Solapur, Maharashtra State via Hyderabad,” the police said.
Their main receiver Bablu Shinde from Solapur, Maharashtra and main supplier, one Subhash from Araku Valley in Andhra Pradesh, are at large, said the police.
“The gang has been involved in property offences in the past and had hatched a plan to smuggle drugs to make easy money. They procured the country-made firearm as protection and were involved in transporting the contraband across borders,” said the police.
Based on a tip-off, the gang was nabbed near the Outer Ring Road (ORR) in Dundigal on Tuesday.
In the second case, the SOT Madhapur Zone, along with the Narsingi police, apprehended two suppliers from Maharashtra, identified as Vishal Chandrakanth Shinde and Sagar Bhaban Deshmukh. The men were smuggling 720 kg of marijuana in a medium-sized truck and were recruited to supply the contraband from one Rahman of Andhra Pradesh to Aurangabad, Maharashtra.
The police further said that Rahman recruits drivers to smuggle the drugs across State borders to his dealers in Aurangabad.
“He offers the drivers Rs 12,000 each per trip. In their current trip, they had concealed the drugs by covering them in empty vegetable crates,” added the police.
During the wee hours of Tuesday, they were nabbed on the service road in Manchirevula by the police.
