Nine years later, Kandahar victims win compensation

New Delhi: Justice has finally been delivered to the 174 passengers who boarded an Indian Airlines flight from Kathmandu to New Delhi that was hijacked to Kandahar, Afghanistan nine years ago.

A consumer court yesterday ordered the airline to pay compensation to all on board.

The State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission headed by Justice J.D. Kapoor awarded a Rs10 million (Dh753,510) compensation for the agony and trauma suffered by those who survived and Rs500,000 to the legal heirs of the passenger who was killed by the terrorists.

Indian Airlines flight IC-814 was hijacked on December 24, 1999 and taken to Kandahar, where the passengers were held hostage till December 31, when then foreign minister Jaswant Singh went to Kandahar with the three prisoners the terrorists had demanded to be released in exchange.

One of the passengers, Rupin Katyal, was killed by the hijackers during the week long ordeal.

Justice Kapoor said every passenger on board the ill-fated plane was entitled to compensation in terms of Section 14(1)(h)(b) of the Consumer Protection Act of 1986, as they all had suffered the same degree of injury and agony.

The court passed this order on an appeal filed by Ashok Gupta and his wife who were among the passengers.

The airlines had denied compensation to the concerned passengers.

The aircraft was hijacked while it was near Lucknow and was taken to Amritsar where it was allowed to refuel. It landed in Kandahar where Gupta and his wife along with other passengers and crew remained captive for eight days.

"The whole of this period was a nightmare for them; their hearts throbbing heavily being in the situation between life and death, shock waves going down their spines. Their sufferance cannot be described in words and can well be imagined," said Justice Kapoor.

Gupta said in his petition: "There was no proper food to eat and there was always a fear... when a bullet would pierce us. We were not permitted to even raise our heads and were made to sit with our heads down on our knees."

Justice Kapoor came down heavily on the airline for what he described as its the narrow and literal interpretation of "bodily and personal injury".