The Hindu : New Delhi News : Three held at airport for overcharging

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 07, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Three held at airport for overcharging

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JAN. 6. There appears to be a race for "cheating" honours at the Indira Gandhi International Airport these days and giving a tough run for their money to the unscrupulous taxi operators, trolley touts and bag-lifters are the STD booth operators -- three of whom have been caught in the past week for overcharging passengers, at times up to 500 per cent!

In the most recent incident yesterday, an STD booth operator, Arun Sardana, of M/s S Grover was held by the Central Industrial Security Force personnel at the International Terminal after a passenger of a Dubai-bound flight, Amarjit Singh, complained about being overcharged by the operator. It was subsequently revealed that as against the original bill of just Rs 18, the accused had demanded Rs. 48 by claiming that the billing machine was not working properly. However, on being handed over to the Airport Manager, he was let off with a fine of Rs 100.

Similarly, on January 3, a STD booth operator, Bishan Lal, was nabbed at the International Terminal for charging a Singapore bound passenger, S.K. Verma, Rs 150 instead of Rs 85 for making two calls to Australia. Here again the accused initially refused the bill on the ground that the printer was not functioning. But he was nabbed as the passenger lodged a complaint with the CISF.

The other booth operator, Gurvinder, was also caught from a booth at the International Terminal. He had allegedly charged Rs 42 instead of the original bill of Rs 12.50 from a London-bound passenger, Umesh Sharma, who complained against him to the security personnel.

Meanwhile, in another catch, the CISF personnel posted at the Delhi airport nabbed a 24-year-old youth, Shakil Ahmad, a resident of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, on the charge of picking a Nokia mobile phone worth Rs 12,000 from the pocket of a visitor, Mohammad Mohisin Khan, at the Haj Terminal last evening.

Mr Khan had gone to the Haj Terminal to see off a relative at around 5-30 p.m. when he suddenly realised that his mobile phone had gone missing from his pocket.

As he immediately raised an alarm, the CISF personnel deployed at the Haj Terminal immediately stopped the persons who were around them and subjected them to a search which led to the recovery of the phone from the possession of the accused, who was then handed over to the IGI police for further action.

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