Dubai-bound Air India flight leaves from Mangaluru Airport after 12-hour delay
Mangaluru: An Air India Express flight scheduled to depart for Dubai from Mangalore International Airport faced a delay of 12 hours due to a technical fault. The flight, which was supposed to take off at 11.05 p.m. on Monday night, finally departed at 12.10 p.m. on Tuesday.
As a result of the prolonged delay, approximately seven passengers opted to cancel their journeys and made alternative travel arrangements. However, 161 passengers decided to continue with their travel plans and boarded the flight to Dubai.
Passengers were informed about the technical fault with flight IX813 and were initially informed that the flight would be diverted to Thiruvananthapuram, with accommodation provided at a hotel. From Thiruvananthapuram, they would proceed to Dubai. However, most passengers expressed a preference for an empty flight to be brought directly from Thiruvananthapuram to Mangalore, allowing for a non-stop journey. Responding to this feedback, Air India arranged for a replacement flight from Thiruvananthapuram to Mangalore, enabling the passengers to continue their journey to Dubai.
Meanwhile, flight IX383, originally scheduled to depart at 9.15 a.m. on Tuesday, was rescheduled for 6.45 p.m.
Air India expressed regret for the inconvenience caused to passengers and released a statement addressing the situation. "The flight scheduled for Dubai on Monday night was able to fly to Thiruvananthapuram. Passengers were told that the flight would proceed to Dubai after maintenance work was completed in Trivandrum. However, as the passengers preferred to wait for the empty flight to arrive from Thiruvananthapuram, there were delays. We have ensured continuous catering for passengers, and passengers have also cooperated," the statement read.
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Gang providing bank accounts to cyber fraudsters to launder money busted in Surat; 4 held
Surat (PTI): The Surat police have arrested four members of a gang, including one from Mumbai, for allegedly providing 623 bank accounts to cybercrooks in India and abroad for transferring crime proceeds of more than Rs 111 crore, officials said.
Three of the accused were caught transferring money, deposited by cyber fraud victims, from one bank account to another when the police raided an office in Gujarat's Surat city on Tuesday, they said.
The bank accounts provided by the accused were used by India as well as Dubai and China-based cyber criminals, who duped people through digital arrest, job, task and investment frauds, a police release on Wednesday said.
The accused used to charge a specific commission for providing access to their bank accounts, it said.
A preliminary probe suggested that the four accused, arrested on Tuesday, were part of a gang which used to work with cyber fraudsters against whom the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) has so far received 866 complaints.
These criminals face 200 FIRs across the country, the police said.
In June, the Surat police in Gujarat arrested eight persons involved in providing bank accounts (called 'mule' accounts) to cyber criminals to park defrauded money after charging commission.
Their interrogation brought to light that eight more persons, two of them based in Dubai, were also involved in providing such accounts, typically used for laundering proceeds of cyber crimes, the release said.
Based on the information gathered from them, the police raided an office in Mota Varachha area of Surat city on Tuesday and arrested three persons -- Ajay Italia, Jalpesh Nadiadara and Vishal Thumar. Another accused, Hiren Barvalia, was arrested from Mumbai international airport when he was trying to board a Dubai-bound flight, said the release.
Four others -- Milan Vaghela, Ketan Vekaria, Dashrath Dandhalia and Jagdish Ajudia -- are still at large. Vaghela and Ajudia are currently in Dubai, it said.
When the police raided the office in Mota Varachha, the three persons was busy transferring money, deposited by cyber fraud victims, from one bank account to another.
After completing fund transfer, their accomplices used to withdraw cash in Dubai using debit cards, the police said explaining the gang's modus operandi.
During the raid at the office and two other locations in Surat, the police recovered 28 mobile phones, 198 bank passbooks, 100 debit cards, 35 cheque books, 258 SIM cards and three computers.
The police learnt the gang was operating as many as 623 bank accounts, in which transactions of Rs 111 crore were detected, said the release.
A diary recovered from the office indicated the accused had acquired some of the bank accounts on a specific commission from 16 persons and they were charging fees from cyber criminals for using them, it said.
The NCRP data accessed by the Surat police indicated that of these 623 bank accounts, people from across the country had lodged 866 complaints against holders of 370 accounts on the portal as these were used by scamsters to accept money from cyber fraud victims.
The data also suggested the bank accounts were linked to 200 FIRs registered across the country for different cyber frauds, the police release added.
