Jharkhand police on Saturday booked BJP MPs Nishikant Dubey, Manoj Tiwari alongside seven others for allegedly forcing officials at Deoghar airport in Jharkhand for clearance of their chartered flight for take-off at night. An FIR has been registed against them.
Based on a complaint lodged by the DSP of the airport Suman Anan, the case was registered. Charges of endangering the life or safety of others and criminal trespass have been pressed on all them including the two BJP MPs and the airport director.
According to the FIR, on August 31, Lok Sabha MP Nishikant Dubey, his son Kanishk Kant Dubey, Mahikant Dubey, MP Manoj Tiwari, Mukesh Pathak, Devta Pandey, and Pintu Tiwari entered the high-security Air Traffic Control (ATC) at Deoghar airport without permission and deployed their influence and forced the officials to give clearance to their chartered plane.
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Night operations are yet to become functional at the newly unveiled Deoghar airport. Flight services at the airport are currently allowed till 30 minutes before sunset.
According to the complainant’s statement, the time of sunset on the day of the incident was 6:03 pm. The chartered flight with the BJP leaders on board took off at 6:17 pm.
As per media reports, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey said that the airport authority did not object and they took permission from the director of the airport. He also added that they were ready to fight the case and would put forward their side of the events.
On Friday night, Dubey got into a Twitter banter with Deoghar District Magistrate (DM) Manjunath Bhajantri, who accused the BJP leader of 'breaching national security' by flouting safety regulations and getting clearance for his flight forcibly .
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In the war of words, the BJP MP tweeted "I’d suggest you to study aviation rules again. As an IAS officer, the nation expects better from you. Now the matter is under investigation at all possible levels, please comment further only after reading aviation and airport rules carefully henceforth."
