Senior Congressman Bholanath Pandey passed away on Friday. He gained notoriety in 1978 for his daring attempt of “hijacking” an indian Airlines aircraft with a fake gun in order to seek the release of former prime minister Indira Gandhi. He was seventy-one.
The remains of Bholanath Pandey have been stored in his lucknow residence, and on saturday morning, he will be cremated. He served as an mla twice for Uttar Pradesh’s Doaba (now Bairia) assembly seat. In addition to his political contributions, Bholanath Pandey is best known for his audacious action on december 20, 1978, when he used a toy gun to “hijack” an indian Airlines flight, IC 410, in order to demand the release of indira gandhi, who had been taken into custody in Delhi’s tihar jail following the Emergency on suspicion of being involved in a scam.
Before the jet was scheduled to land in delhi, he and his companion Devendra Pandey performed the performance. There were 132 passengers on the aircraft, including two former ministers from the Emergency era, AK Sen and Dharam Bir Sinha.
HOW WAS THE indian AIRLINES FLIGHT ‘HIJACKED’?
It all started at 5:45 p.m. when the flight from lucknow to delhi, which was headed from calcutta (now Kolkata), took off. There was some disturbance in the fifteenth row about fifteen minutes before the airplane was scheduled to arrive in Delhi. Rising from their chairs, Bholanath and Devendra Pandey made their way to the cockpit.
They forced the flight captain to declare that the aircraft had been hijacked and was now headed to patna rather than delhi after they had entered the cockpit. The flight was said to be heading to varanasi after a while.
In an interview, Flight Captain MN Bhattiwala stated that both Pandeys had given the pilots instructions to take off for nepal first, but they had refused. They were then advised to take a flight to Bangladesh, but they continued to resist. He described the event as peculiar.
Using the intercom, Bholanath and Devendra Pandey gave remarks introducing themselves as youth congress members. They had said that they supported nonviolence and that the passengers wouldn’t suffer any harm.
Additionally, Bholanath Pandey had asked that all charges against Sanjay Gandhi, the son of indira gandhi, be withdrawn.
On the aircraft, both Pandeys shouted “Indira Zindabad” and “Sanjay Zindabad,” which elicited applause and applause from the passengers. The majority of the passengers reportedly did not consider the hijacking to be serious.
Bholanath Pandey and Devendra Pandey met Janata party member ram naresh Yadav, who was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh at the time, when the plane landed in Varanasi.
The airplane was given the all-clear to depart following hours of negotiations and promises that indira gandhi would be released. Subsequently, Bholanath and Devendra Panday submitted.
But when indira gandhi became prime minister again in 1980, the accusations against her and her husband were withdrawn, and the congress issued tickets for them to run in the 1980 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
Subsequently, during an interview, Bholanath Pandey stated that their act of hijacking was only a protest meant to exert pressure on the Janata party administration to free Indira Gandhi.
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