Was to fly BJP president to Gorakhpur

A pilot who was to fly Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Gadkari to Gorakhpur on Tuesday morning was arrested at the airport with a live cartridge.u00a0


BJP chief Nitin Gadkari

"The Canadian pilot, 33-year-old Rafael Jose Hubbard, was found in possession of a live cartridge of 7.62mm bore during a routine security check before he was to fly a chartered plane. He was detained and handed over to IGI police. During the security check, he had told CISF staff that he was to fly BJP chief Nitin Gadkari," said DCP (Airport Security), RA Sanjeev.

The pilot was later produced at Dwarka court and granted bail on a personal security of Rs 25,000. An FIR under Arms Act was registered against him.u00a0According to the sources, the pilot had told police that he had bought the second-hand bag, in which bullet was found, from Sarojini Nagar market in south Delhi and had not checked it properly before packing his luggage.u00a0u00a0

u00a0"The aircraft belongs to some private company and the party had only rented it. Let police investigate the matter,"u00a0u00a0 said BJP spokesperson Prakash Javdekar. A close aide of BJP president said, "On Tuesday morning, the aviation company informed us that they won't be able to provide us the aircraft as pilot has not got security clearance at Delhi airport. Later, we contacted another private charter firm and the party president left Delhi at around 11 am for Gorakhpur."u00a0