14 DAY TRIAL // Accountant Jitender Kumar Mohla has been imprisoned since 2009 for giving the pilots on a Goa-Delhi Indigo Airlines flight a scare. As the man's trial came to an end, he was sentenced to life in jail.
According to Mid Day, the man walked into the cockpit on February 1, 2009, and claimed he was armed with infected needles and a gun and that he would be hijacking the plane.
Mohla boasted he had done it before, having been one of the hijackers on an Indian Airlines plane in 1999, a case that had made headlines in India.
In the 1999 case, a group of men had commandeered a plane, threatening crew members' lives with guns and knives, and taking the life of a passenger, according to Wikipedia.
The man was seized and subdued by members of the crew, helped by passengers on the plane, and pilots sent a hijack alert to Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport.
An emergency landing and two and a half hours of on-plane investigations followed, as authorities had to eliminate all risks.
“[The plane] was headed from western Goa state to Delhi, was mid-air with around 160 passengers on board …The threat created panic among the passengers and prompted the pilot to send a hijack alert,” a local newspaper wrote.
Mohla was convicted to life in prison under the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation law.
He was also prosecuted on other counts, on which he was found guilty – endangering the life or personal safety of others, criminal intimidation and impersonating a public servant.
In addition to a life term, he had to pay a fine of INR 7,000 (€100 / $127). Many believe Mohla was made an example of, in an effort to enforce a “zero tolerance” policy on suspicious actions aboard aircrafts, while they are in mid-air.