New Delhi, Feb. 2: A chartered accountant apparently sold on his air commodore father’s profession is being held responsible for Sunday’s “hijack threat” that activated a security drill, held up 30 flights and 2,000 passengers and spoiled the home minister’s Sunday.

Jitendra Kumar Mola, who had soaked in Goa’s sun and sea for 11 days with other chartered accountants, will now spend 14 days in a jail in Delhi. If he is found guilty under a stringent law invoked against him, he could be kept in jail for life or as many as 14 years.

The 40-year-old Mola has been charged with endangering public safety by claiming in mid-air that he was involved with the 1999 hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane — because he was not allowed to switch his designated seat on an IndiGo flight from Goa to Delhi yesterday.

Mola’s threat triggered an emergency drill at Delhi airport that put the terror-wary country on edge for several hours and inconvenienced thousands (see chart).

Delhi police sources claimed Mola had said during questioning that he made the hijack claim “just for kicks”.

Accounts of fellow passengers and investigators suggest the chartered accountant took pride in posing as a sky marshal and had some fascination for aviation posts — an interest he could have picked up from his father who is a retired air commodore. Mola and his family stay in a defence officer’s colony in Sector 7 in west Delhi’s Dwarka.

The police said Mola told an airhostess that he was a sky marshal (assigned in Indian planes after the 1999 hijacking) and misled several passengers on or before the flight.

Sameer Uppal, who was picked up by commandos because he was seen speaking to Mola but was eventually freed, told the police that the fellow passenger had introduced himself as an Indian Air Force officer.

“It was all a misunderstanding as far as I was concerned. He was sitting next to me on the flight and we got talking. I don’t know him and the conversation lasted less than a couple of minutes,” said Uppal.

Another passenger Harpreet Anand, also picked up but released later, said Mola claimed he was an official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

These claims could have been passed off as harmless but the matter spun out of control when Mola was not allowed to change seats. Mola told the airhostess he was involved in the Kandahar hijacking. The airhostess then informed the captain who alerted Delhi airport.

PTI quoted police as also saying: “Mola claimed that he had a gun and infectious needles.”

Mola was on his way back from Goa where he had gone to attend a conference of chartered accountants. Some passengers said he was drunk.

But a medical examination did not find traces of alcohol — the only anomaly mentioned was low pressure which a doctor said could not be the reason for his behaviour.

Additional commissioner of police Ujjwal Mishra said Mola had complained of breathlessness and low blood pressure at Goa airport. “He told airlines officials that after an energy drink he would be fine. He was allowed (to have the drink) but no medical treatment was given,” Mishra said.

“When a patient is suffering from a low blood pressure condition, he should ideally be sitting down with his leg up or, better still, lying down. But Mola was apparently pacing up and down the aisle. I don’t see any connection — his low BP couldn’t have made him aggressive,” said Rajat Mitra, a doctor in Delhi, a city not unfamiliar with motorists flying off the handle at the slightest provocation.

“There are some people who get provoked very fast…. They always want to be in a situation of power,” Mitra added.

Mola has been booked under the Suppression of Unlawful Acts in the Safety of Civil Aviation Act, 1982, a non-bailable offence that carries a maximum punishment of life term.

He has also been charged under Section 336 (act endangering life and personal safety of others) and Section 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. The bailable sections entail a maximum punishment of two years in jail and a fine of Rs 250.

Mola did not betray any aggression as he headed to jail. Wearing a grey blazer and a white shirt, he refused to comment on his behaviour.

“I don’t know why he did it. But he did threaten the girl (the airhostess) and caused a lot of inconvenience. So he had to be booked,” Mishra said.