DGCA carrying out technical evaluation of two incidents involving IndiGo planes
New Delhi (PTI): Aviation regulator DGCA in close coordination with IndiGo is carrying out the "technical evaluation" of the engine issues faced by the airline's two aircraft on Tuesday, according to an official.
Two flights of IndiGo, one from Kolkata to Bengaluru and another from Madurai to Mumbai suffered engine issues on Tuesday.
In a statement, IndiGo said its flight 6E 455 from Kolkata to Bengaluru returned to Kolkata after take off due to a technical issue. The pilot followed standard operating procedures and landed back in Kolkata.
The flight 6E-2012 operating from Madurai to Mumbai had a technical issue prior to landing in Mumbai and the pilot prioritised the landing in Mumbai, the airline said in a separate statement. The aircraft is held at Mumbai and will be back in operation after necessary maintenance, it added.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is doing the technical evaluation of both the incidents "in close coordination with the operator", the senior official at the regulator said on Wednesday.
IndiGo's fleet is powered by Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engines and a number of aircraft are on the ground.
On August 2, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers had said the number of aircraft impacted by the supply-chain challenge issues was in the high thirties. "I would actually label it now around 40".
Elbers, on August 24, told shareholders that the airline is taking a whole range of mitigating measures are being taken to deal with the situation arising out of grounded aircraft.
"We are dealing with some AOG situation... AOG is being dealt with a whole range of mitigating measures. These measures were announced at the end of last year and have been effective in order to make sure that we deliver our capacity guidance that we provided to the market and shareholders earlier," the IndiGo CEO had said.
At the end of June, IndiGo had a fleet of 316 planes, including 166 A320 neos, 87 A321 neos and two planes on wet lease.
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Traffic fraud: Fake 'no-entry' sticker racket busted in Delhi, mastermind among 3 held
New Delhi (PTI): Police here have busted a crime syndicate involved in traffic fraud and extortion, arresting three people including the alleged mastermind who sold fake stickers to help commercial vehicles bypass no-entry restrictions, an official said on Saturday.
The police said they dismantled a third organised syndicate linked to traffic-related frauds, with the arrest of Rinku Rana alias Bhushan, his associate Sonu Sharma and Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, who was also connected to another extortion syndicate.
According to the police, Rinku Rana was running a well-organised network that facilitated the movement of commercial goods vehicles during restricted hours by selling fake 'marka' or stickers for Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 per vehicle every month. The stickers were falsely projected as authorisation to evade traffic challans.
During raids, the police recovered Rs 31 lakh in cash, property documents worth several crores of rupees, over 500 fake stickers and six mobile phones allegedly used to operate the syndicate.
The crackdown followed a complaint filed by a traffic police officer in April this year after a commercial vehicle tried to evade checking by producing a fake sticker claiming exemption from enforcement action.
Investigation revealed that social media groups were being used to coordinate the illegal movement of vehicles and alert drivers about traffic police checkpoints, police said.
"A parallel system was being run to cheat drivers and vehicle owners while undermining traffic enforcement. On the basis of evidence, provisions related to organised crime under the BNS were invoked," a senior police officer said.
Sonu Sharma, the police said, managed social media groups through which stickers were sold and real-time alerts were circulated regarding traffic police movement. He also acted as a link between Rana and drivers operating in the field.
In a related development, Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, an associate of Rajkumar alias Raju Meena, who was earlier arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), was also apprehended.
Mukesh allegedly helped extort money from transporters and was involved in blackmailing traffic police personnel by recording enforcement actions, the police said.
Investigators alleged the syndicate led by Rajkumar deployed drivers to deliberately violate traffic rules and secretly record police officials during challans, later using manipulated videos to extort money under threat of false allegations.
The police said that in total, eight accused belonging to three different organised crime syndicates linked to traffic frauds and extortion have been arrested so far.
Further investigation is underway to trace the remaining members, conduct financial probes, and analyse digital evidence recovered during the raids, officials added.
