Delhi Police arrested a fake Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force (IAF) from the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport on Wednesday, with the development being officially reported on Saturday.
According to details, the 40-year-old criminal was identified as Firoz Gandhi. Two IAF uniforms, Aerodrome Entry Pass (AEP), defense welfare cards, ID cards, membership cards of the aero clubs, and cards of other defense services were also recovered from him. Gandhi had obtained these credentials using fake documents.
Gandhi was arrested when he visited the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) at IGI Airport to renew his AEP, which allows defense personnel unrestricted access to airports countrywide.
BCAS officials said that Gandhi had submitted an application for AEP renewal that was randomly sent to IAF’s Centralised Access Control System (CACS) Biometric Portal.
After brief verification, IAF informed BCAS that Gandhi’s credentials seem to be fake. BCAS asked Gandhi to appear in person to process his application on Wednesday. Senior BCAS officials questioned him and found blatant contradictions in his statements. As a result, BCAS informed Delhi Police and Gandhi was arrested.
During preliminary interrogation, Gandhi revealed that he joined the National Cadet Corps (NCC) as an aero-modeling instructor in 2005. He was always fascinated with the IAF which led him to get its uniform secretly.
He disguised himself as an IAF Wing Commander and got an AEP from BCAS using fake documents as he told BCAS that he was working as a liaisoning officer at Bal Bhawan. He also confessed to meeting hundreds of VIPs in official IAF meetings, deceiving ‘reliable’ Indian intelligence agencies all these years.
He also piloted a Mig-21 (Bison) that was shot down by the PAF. He was later spared/released after being treated by Pak Army with “fantastic tea”.
Dhakan woh abhinandan tha yeh dusra hai
So this was the Hero with Monkey Moustache!!! IAF should use his long history instead of locking him up.