Jharkhand High Court on Monday quashed the FIR against BJP MPs Nishikant Dubey and Manoj Tiwari in an ATS clearance matter at Deoghar airport.

The FIR was registered in the first week of September last year. On the instructions of the Deoghar deputy commissioner, the Jharkhand police had registered an FIR against Dubey, his two sons, MP Manoj Tiwari, the Deoghar airport director, and others for allegedly forcing officials at the airport to clear their chartered flight for take-off on the night of August 31. The FIR was registered at Kunda police station on September 1 on a complaint by security in-charge Suman Anand, who stated that the said persons violated all safety standards by entering the ATC room and forcing officials to give clearance for the take-off.

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The security-in-charge sought action against the pilot of the chartered plane, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, Kanishk Kant Dubey, Mahikant Dubey, MP Manoj Tiwari, Mukesh Pathak, Devta Pandey, Pintu Tiwary and Sandeep Dhingra, the airport director.

Further, according to the complaint filed by the security-in-charge, “Nine people — Nishikant Dubey, Kanishk Kant Dubey, Mahikant Dubey, Manoj Tiwari, Member of Parliament, Kapil Mishra, Sheshadri Dubey Sunil Tiwari and others — had come to Deoghar by a chartered plane at 1 pm on August 31. During their return in the evening, some of them, including Dubey. forcibly entered the ATC room.”

As per the complaint letter, around 17:25 hrs, fellow passengers arrived at the airport to board the chartered flight. They were accompanied by other people who had come to see them off.

The security in charge further stated in his letter that Deoghar airport doesn’t have an IFR facility, which means that night takeoff and landing facility is not available. On August 31, the local sunset timing was 18.03 hours and air services were to be conducted till 17.30 hours.

In September last year, Dubey said there was no violation of rules and everything was done on time.

Speaking to ANI, Dubey said, “Does the government work on the instructions of an MP? The airport belongs to the Airport Authority of India (AAI) and Air Traffic Control (ATC) clearance is monitored by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and security is in the domain of the Bureau of Civil Aviation (BCAS). All three entities are different. An FIR was lodged against Airport Director too. Why? Because Deputy Commissioner (DC) knew that the FIR won’t stand scrutiny before High Court because if something happens at this airport or if any rule has been violated, then the security-in-charge, as the director of the airport authority, needs to answer for it.”