Indian man arrested for making bomb threat to Abu Dhabi-bound Air Arabia flight

Indian police have arrested a man for allegedly making a bomb threat to an Abu Dhabi-bound Air Arabia flight. Mohammad Ijas, 26, sent an email to the airport director of Karipur International Airport in Kozhikode in southern Kerala state on Tuesday claiming that the flight heading to Abu Dhabi was rigged with a bomb. He was arrested by police on Wednesday. “We arrested Mohammad Ijas. He emailed the airport using his personal email address saying that there was a bomb in the aircraft. We sent a team yesterday,” Abbas Ali, senior police officer at Karipur Airport police station, told The National. Police said he was on the flight to Abu Dubai but did not want to travel due to financial issues. He had borrowed over 1.1m rupees ($13,000) from friends. “He had financial issues and wanted to cancel the flight. He travelled to Abu Dhabi each month. We don’t know yet what was his actual job or what he did there,” Ali said. Ali said that Ijas was brought before the chief magistrate and sent to two weeks of judicial custody. Authorities have charged him under relevant sections of the Civil Aviation Act, as well as the penal laws and Kerala Police Act. “The punishment for such crimes under the Civil Aviation Act is life imprisonment,” Ali said.<br/>