AI staffer arrested on molesting a 9 Yr old NRI in Airport- released on bail after a hour

An Air India staffer, asked to safely escort two sisters aged 9 and 6, molested the elder girl in the high-security international terminal of the airport early on Tuesday.

The molester, Reza Ahmed (54), and a colleague who tried to help him out were arrested but got bail on a surety of just Rs 1,000 each. They have been suspended by Air India.

The incident is an indicator of the state of affairs at the airport. The crime was caught on CCTV, but the CISF reacted only when the mother — an NRI — started screaming and passengers started thrashing Ahmed.

The girls, who were here to visit their grandparents in south Kolkata, were booked on a Lufthansa flight to Boston via Frankfurt, which was scheduled to take off at 2.55 am.

Around 1.10 am, the mother walked up to the check-in counter while loader supervisor Ahmed, according to airport sources, was asked to escort the minors safely. Ten minutes later, the woman turned back to see her elder daughter weeping. She complained that a man had taken her aside and done “bad things to her”. When her mother asked if she could identify him, she pointed to Ahmed. He had allegedly taken the girl behind an X-ray machine near the check-in counter and molested her.

On hearing the woman’s screams, passengers and staffers grabbed Ahmed and started beating him. Before security personnel could reach the spot, Ahmed’s colleague Benoy Sanyasi whisked him away. Witnesses said two CISF jawans were nearby, but the force denied any security lapse. “The check-in counters are not under our jurisdiction,” said Jayati Ghosh, senior commandant, CISF.

The woman refused to leave till Ahmed was arrested. The CISF ground commandant had a tough time assuring her action would be taken. She reluctantly boarded her flight after submitting a written complaint with the CISF, which was forwarded to airport police.

Police tracked down Sanyasi, who initially insisted that Ahmed was innocent and that he didn’t know where he was. But under interrogation, he revealed where Ahmed was hiding. The molester, a Beckbagan resident, was arrested from near a hangar.