Onkar Singh

The hijack drama ended on December 31 last year in Kandahar after the Government of India agreed to release three top militants in exchange for the safe return of passengers and crew. One year later, criminal charges are yet to be framed against the accused, though the hijackers and their accomplices had been identified before even the drama had ended.

In all, 10 persons have been listed as accused. Chargesheets were filed against all of them in June. Amongst the accused are three persons who are in custody in Patiala. Seven others have been declared absconders and a red corner alert has been issued for them by Interpol at the CBI's request.

The CBI has registered cases against the accused under sections 147, 148, 149 of the Indian Penal Code. Cases under sections 302 (for the murder of Rupin Katyal), 307 (attempt to murder the passengers and crew), 341, 342 and 365 of the IPC have also been registered. Besides, they have been booked under the Arms Act, sections 4 & 5 of the Anti-Hijacking Act, and section 120B of the IPC for criminal conspiracy.

Among the 10 accused are Ibrahim Athar of Bahawalpur, Pakistan, who was codenamed Chief, Sunny Ahmed Qazi alias Burger, a resident of Karachi, Shahid Syed Akhtar alias Doctor, Zahoor Ibrahim Mistry alias Bola (also residents of Karachi), and Shakir alias Shankar of Sukkur, Sind. Also listed are two close relatives of Maulana Masood Azhar -- Abdul Rauf, his brother, and Yusuf Azhar, brother-in-law. The remaining three -- Abdul Momin, Yusuf Nepali and Dileep Kumar Bujail -- are in police custody.

Flight IC-814 from Kathmandu to New Delhi was hijacked by five Pakistanis and taken first to Amristar, then to Lahore and Dubai before finally landing in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where it remained parked for seven days.

After a week of tough bargaining, the government agreed to release three militants held in Delhi and Jammu jails, amongst them Maulana Masood Azhar.

While the negotiations were going on with the hijackers in Kandahar, the Bombay police picked up Abdul Latif Adam Momin and Yusuf Nepali from Jogeshwari, a northwestern suburb of Bombay, on December 30. But as the passengers and crew had still not been released, the intelligence agencies kept the matter under wraps.

The intervening period, according to one of the investigators, was used to identify the people behind the hijack and picking up their pictures and other details. Since the hijackers had travelled through India and gone to Nepal with visas, it was relatively easy to pick up these details. It was only after the entire exercise had been given final touches that Union Home Minister L K Advani held a press conference to announce that the Inter-Services Intelligence was behind the hijacking.

The Bombay police with the help of the intelligence agencies did the basic spadework before the CBI took over on January 11. "The Bombay police needs to be complimented for the work they did. They had got a tip-off from someone about the activities of Yusuf Nepali and Abdul Momin. They were monitoring their phone calls and when Momin called up his contact in Karachi to get further directions it became evident that he knew something about the hijacking. Once he and Nepali were picked up, it was not difficult to crack the case," said a senior Intelligence Bureau officer.

According to the investigators, the operation was masterminded by Abdul Rauf and Yusuf Azhar. "Of course, we now know that the actual operation was planned in Bangladesh where the five hijackers had gathered to plan the actual execution. Interrogation of the accused in custody revealed that it was Ibrahim Athar who actually carried the weapons and explosives into the aircraft," one of the investigators told rediff.com

The CBI formed a number of teams to talk to the released passengers and collect the necessary leads. The task was difficult as they could not talk to the passengers and crew immediately after their return. And since many of the passengers lived in different parts of the country, the investigators had to do a lot of travelling. Two teams were also flown to other countries to talk to foreigners who travelled by the hijacked plane.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also registered a case under the Anti-Hijacking Act as an American citizen, Jeanne Moore, was on the flight. Under the US constitution, the FBI has the right to investigate any crime in any part of the world that has been committed against its citizens. The Indian police on the other hand can register a case only if the offence has been committed on Indian soil.

FBI agents made several visits to India in connection with the investigation and sought the CBI's help to reach some of the passengers and crew to record their statements. They may be called as witnesses as and when the trial of the hijackers starts.

The case is now pending before the designated court of the special judge in Patiala and CBI officials are awaiting summons from the court so that charges can be framed against the accused. "This is a court matter and we cannot tell you when the trial will begin," said a CBI officer.

The Hijack: One Year On