CBI charges IC405 hijacker ''Harfan Maula'' with cheating

New Delhi, July 24

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has charged a pro-Khalistan militant who was accused of hijacking a Srinagar-New Delhi Indian Airlines flight in 1984 and taking it to Lahore with having acquired an Afghanistan passport under an assumed identity to migrate to Canada.

In a recent charge sheet filed recently, the agency accused Parminder Singh Saini alias Harfan Maula for procuring a fake Afghanistan passport in the name of Balbir Singh in Pakistan in 1995, CBI sources said.

The agency has said that Saini used this passport to migrate to Canada, where he got himself a driving and social security licenses on the basis of forged travel documents acquired in Pakistan.

The sources said although the agency had taken over the hijacking case on July 5, 1984, it could not begin criminal proceedings because of a conviction in Pakistan for the same crime.

He was later released and migrated to Canada using an assumed identity, the sources said.

In its charge sheet filed in Patiala House Court, CBI has cited Letters Rogatory received from Canada, where Saini was detained in 1995 after his fraud was found, the sources said.

Saini was deported to India in 2010 after a long legal battle in Canada, where he had sought permanent residence.

Indian Airlines flight IC 405 from Srinagar to New Delhi carrying 255 passengers and a crew of nine was diverted and forced to land in Lahore, Pakistan, on July 6, 1984.

The terrorists demanded the release of Harmandar Singh Sandho, General Secretary of the All-India Sikh Students Federation, among other prominent members leaders and $25 million ransom. — PTI