New Delhi: A Chinese man and three of his associates, all Chinese, have been arrested for allegedly stealing debit and credit cards of passengers aboard an international flight at Delhi’s IGI Airport on Wednesday.
Benlai Pan, 30, and his associates Meng Guangyang, 51, Chang Mang, 42, and Liu Jie, 45 were arrested after the Security and Vigilance team of Air India alerted police about suspicious activity on board its flight AI-315 from Hong Kong to New Delhi, The Indian Express reported.
Passenger Prabhat Verma, seated at 12C, said that cabin crew alerted him about ‘unusual movement around his overhead luggage’.
It was then Verma noticed that his Bank of America credit was missing, which was later found under seat 14c occupied by Benlai Pan.
Pan was not assigned to occupy the seat as he had a ticket for seat 23C, according to officials.
Another passenger, Prashi, occupying the seat 14A complained that her mother’s HDFC debit card was also missing.
Meanwhile, a passenger, Nafeez Fatima, supplied visuals of Pan opening cabin baggage, checking personal belongings, according to the report citing police.
Alongside questioning Pan and gang members, a police team coordinated with Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and airline security, reviewed surveillance footage, examined digital evidence, and recorded cabin crew statements alongside looking into the accused’s past travel data.
Usha Rangnani, Additional Commissioner of Police, IGI Airport said that Pan confessed that he and his associates were part of ‘a coordinated syndicate operating on international transit flights’, adding that ‘Their tactics included booking transit flights with longer durations to maximise access to unsupervised cabin luggage’.
The ACP further said that the gang sat in different rows as part of the coordinated move, to avoid detection and targeted sleeping passengers, before opening their bags and take ‘high-value items and cards’.
‘They would then discard the cards after attempting misuse, making detection harder. The group deliberately used flights between high-traffic international routes, exploiting long-duration flights and cabin fatigue,’ the ACP added.