The immigration wing of the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) remains vulnerable even after Intelligence Bureau taking it over this year.
A top IB official told 'City Express' that it is impossible to man the section with the staff allotted to them. "The immigration wing does not have more than four per cent of IB officials. We had sought more staff from our unit to manage the Wing. But since there was no response, we had to retain the staff from the Kerala police working under deputation. The deputation procedures were done after examining the service record and additional inquiry with the Police Department,” an IB official said.
When the applications were invited for the deputation to IB for manning the immigration wing, over 700 from the Kerala police applied.
However, after the IB took over the Wing at CIAL, the airport witnessed incidents like Shameem, brother of Thadiyantavide Nazeer, accused in a few cases escaping to Sharjah. The recent sex racket case in which more than 100 girls were trafficked to Dubai also raises doubts on the effectiveness of immigration checking at the airport. In the same case a Sub-Inspector deputed to the wing had assisted sex racketeers to clear the fake passport and transport women to Dubai.
Ernakulam Rural police, Crime Detachment Wing, which first investigated the case reported that the service record of the Sub-Inspector was clear and he was not involved in any case in the past. On the basis of this he had been working at the airport for several months.
The Crime Detachment wing at first suspected that more, including some high-level officials in the airport were involved in the case. Later the case was charged only against the Sub-Inspector.