Mumbai Airport Fire: Flammable Substance Ignited at CSMIA, Five Arrested For Attempting To Carry It On Plane

The Sahar police on Friday arrested five suspects, including a passenger named Sameer Narayan Biswas (32), at Terminal 2 of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport for attempting to carry flammable substances on a plane. The passenger was on flight ET 641, traveling from Mumbai to Congo via Addis Ababa. However, while loading the luggage onto the plane, Biswas's bag caught fire. The loaders noticed the fire and managed to extinguish it using the airport's firefighting system. During this time, a significant amount of smoke spread throughout the airport area. The Sahar police were alerted, and officers from the Sahar police station quickly arrived at the scene. A police officer remarked that it was fortunate the incident occurred before the luggage was loaded onto the flight, allowing the situation to be brought under control. Had the fire started after takeoff, the lives of the 211 passengers and crew members onboard could have been in serious danger.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police Dixit Gedam, the arrested suspect, Sameer Biswas, is a native of Kolkata and an ITI graduate. He was traveling to Congo for work, where he was set to be employed as a manager by an Indian named Naveen Sharma, who resides in Congo. DCP Gedam stated that Sameer was carrying the flammable substances to deliver them to Naveen Sharma.

Viswanath Balasubramani Senjundhar, a resident of Ambernath, and Suresh Singh from Navi Mumbai, supplied the flammable substances to Nandan Dinesh Yadav (26), who then handed them over to the accused passenger, Biswas, outside the airport. The police investigation revealed that Biswas was carrying five liters of hydrogen peroxide and five kilograms of titanium dioxide powder.

The investigation also uncovered that Akhilesh Yadav (28), a resident of Marol, assisted Nandan Yadav in delivering the flammable substances to the airport. Initially, Sameer Biswas was arrested, followed by the arrests of Nandan Yadav, Suresh Singh, Viswanath Senjundhar, and Akhilesh Yadav.

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DCP Gedam mentioned that the police operation continued until 4 a.m. on Saturday. A case was registered under Sections 125, 327, 61(2) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 3(1)(c) of the Civil Aviation Security Act for the suppression of unlawful acts at the Sahar Police Station. The accused passenger, Sameer Biswas, is a resident of Nadia district in West Bengal. Suresh Subba Singh (46), another accused, is a resident of Dindoshi and operates a business called AS Logistics near Sahar Cargo. He, along with accused Viswanath Senjundhar and Naveen Sharma, helped Sameer Biswas obtain the flammable substances.

Ethiopian Airlines flight ET-641, with 211 passengers onboard, was bound for Addis Ababa from Mumbai. The attempt to carry flammable substances on this flight posed a serious threat to the lives of the passengers and the airport premises. If Biswas’s luggage had been loaded onto the plane, it is believed that the aircraft could have caught fire mid-air. DCP Dixit Gedam also stated that Naveen Sharma from Congo, who ordered the flammable substances, has been named as an accused in the case. In total, there are six accused, five of whom have been arrested.