Kargil War hero 'impersonates' senior to fly Home Minister Amit Shah, probe on: Report

In a bizarre case of identity theft in the ultra-sensitive defence sector, a Kargil war hero has been accused of allegedly impersonating his senior in order to fly Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s aircraft. The incident was reported by The Indian Express on Tuesday. According to The Indian Express report, the accused has been identified as one Wing Commander (retd) JS Sangwan. He was conferred with a medal during the 1999 Kargil War. At present, he is working as a pilot with the Border Security Force. After the identity theft came to light, the BSF along with the Delhi Police launched a probe into this sensational case, The Indian Express report said.

For the uninitiated, the BSF Air Wing is responsible for all the air travel of VIPs across the country. But as this defence unit doesn’t have its own pilots with required experience, several serving as well as retired military pilots join the BSF Air Wing for the VIP movement, The Indian Express report said.

Also, it should be noted that the number of flying hours for any VIP flight stands at 500. The number goes up to 1,000 in case the pilot is needed to fly the aircraft of the Union Home Minister, The Indian Express report said.

It is here, Sangwan decided to impersonate his senior. Since, he didn’t have the required number of flying hours under his belt, Sangwan impersonated his superior and wrote to Larsen and Toubro. He recommended himself in order to fly the L&T aircraft. If successful, this operation would have given Sangwan required numbers of flying hours.

All was well, in fact the L&T believed the mails and allowed him to fly its aircraft, The Indian Express report said. Problem arose when the construction major decided to cross-check with the BSF Air Wing. On his part, Sangwan remains defiant and says that he has ‘nothing to hide’. He claims that he could have minted lot of money in commercial sector. But he wanted to serve the country and this episode was nothing but his simple attempt to clock in enough number of hours to so that he can fly VIP aircraft, The Indian Express report said.