Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

Airport arrests expose 'nexus'

By T.S. Shankar

CHENNAI DEC. 9. Chennai airport immigration authorities appear to have netted big fish with the arrest of two passengers, one of them with suspected ``ISI (Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence) links,'' who tried to flee the country.

A preliminary inquiry has also exposed a ``nexus'' between an airport fire station employee and the travellers.

Sources in the international airports division of the Airports Authority of India said Venugopalan, assistant fire service operator, was today placed under suspension pending enquiry.

The Meenambakkam airport police are looking for him and also probing the role of some agents operating in Chennai and Mumbai, who assisted the passengers.

Investigations have revealed that the employee was warned in the past, by both the immigration authorities and airport police station, not to indulge in dubious activities under the guise of ``passenger facilitation.'' Venugopalan, who had been in the airport for the past 18 years, used to befriend the staff of operational agencies including Immigration and Customs, and indulge in such activities.

At midnight on Sunday night he ``escorted'' Iliyas Ahmed and Asumathi Patel, and after clearing their tickets with the German airlines, Lufthansa, at the ``eleventh hour'', obtained the boarding passes.

After completing the check-in procedure, Venugopalan took the boarding passes to the airport toilet and ``affixed fake pre-departure clearance seals of Customs and Immigration departments.'' All this was revealed by Asumathi Patel, investigating sources said.

The racket came to light when a Central Industrial Security Force official, noticing the two passengers moving under suspicious circumstances, informed senior immigration authorities.

They intercepted the two in the security hold area before they boarded a Frankfurt-bound flight en route to the United States.

The airport immigration officials have briefed authorities of the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau in Mumbai for going into the ``ISI links of Iliyas Ahmed, who had a look-out circular, and the extent of his involvement in the Mumbai blast case.''

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