There was a passenger sitting on seat number 16 C of the hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC-814 from Kathmandu, whose name was not included in the passenger list shared with the media and the public. Who was this anonymous passenger aboard flight IC-814 and why did the Indian authorities not make his name public? The web series ‘IC 814- The Kandahar Hijack’ directed by Anubhav Sinha, released on Netflix, has once again brought that incident of 1999 to the center of discussion. But people hardly know that an Indian spy was also trapped in this plane, if he had taken his junior’s intel seriously, then this hijacking would probably not have happened.
The passenger sitting on seat number 16 C of flight IC-814 was Shashi Bhushan Singh Tomar – who was then posted as First Secretary in the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu. Shashi Bhushan was then the Kathmandu station head of India’s intelligence agency RAW. The then RAW chief AS Dulat also confirmed in a conversation with Aaj Tak that the then station head of RAW in Kathmandu was also present in the hijacked plane IC-814. Dulat said, ‘That poor man who was stuck in the plane for 8 days. He did not know anything.’ This was the problem. The RAW station head should have known that such a plan was being made and should have informed the concerned officials about it. Because he was posted for this work.
Also read: ‘It was completely the handiwork of PAK and ISI, not Al-Qaeda’, says former diplomat on IC-814 hijacking
SBS Tomar was coming to meet his ailing wife
Instead, he himself became a part of the worst chapter in India’s aviation history. Senior journalist Praveen Swami wrote in his report for The Frontline in the year 2000 that Shashi Bhushan Singh Tomar was returning from Kathmandu to Delhi to meet his hospitalized wife. Praveen Swami wrote in his report, ‘The passenger sitting on seat number 16 C of IC-814 was an Indian intelligence officer, who was responsible for monitoring terrorist activities in Nepal. Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) operative SS Tomar, posted at the Indian Embassy in Nepal, was returning to New Delhi to meet his hospitalized wife Sonia.
Praveen Swami told in his report that Sonia Tomar [एसएस तोमर की पत्नी] She is the youngest sister of NK Singh, who was perhaps the most powerful bureaucrat in the Prime Minister’s Office at that time. Between 1998 and 2001, NK Singh was the secretary of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Not only this, Sonia’s eldest sister Shyama was married to former director of National Security Guard (NSG) Nikhil Kumar. Let us tell you that when IC-814 stopped for about 50 minutes in Amritsar for refueling, it was expected that perhaps the NSG would be given the responsibility of the operation to free this plane from the hijackers, but this did not happen.
Also read: Two red bags and a black suitcase… the mystery related to IC-814 hijacking that has not been solved even after 25 years
Shashi Bhushan had ignored the hijacked intel
Coincidentally, Shashi Bhushan had already received this intel that an Indian plane could be hijacked from Kathmandu. But he completely ignored this intel and even scolded the RAW operative who had given this intel. And see the twist of fate that he himself was on board the plane that was hijacked. Former RAW officer RK Yadav writes in his book ‘Mission RAW’ published in 2014, ‘Junior RAW operative UV Singh was posted as second secretary in the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu. He informed his senior SBS Tomar that he had received intel input from his sources that Pakistani terrorists could hijack an Indian plane.’
He further writes, ‘SBS Tomar asked his junior RAW operative UV Singh about the source of this intel. UV Singh told him that he had received this intel from a responsible officer posted at the airport.’ According to RK Yadav, ‘SBS Tomar scolded UV Singh and asked him not to spread rumours. This report was never sent to the RAW headquarters and they suppressed it without cross-checking.’ Those eight days in IC-814 must have been very stressful for Shashi Bhushan Singh Tomar. He must have known very well that if the hijackers came to know about him, he would not be spared.
Also read: After watching the IC 814 series, the real cabin crew said – ‘There are half a dozen mistakes in it, how can they show this?’
RK Yadav writes in his book, ‘SBS Tomar was never reprimanded by RAW officials for this serious lapse. Since he was a close relative of a senior bureaucrat posted in the Prime Minister’s Office, instead of punishing him for negligence, he was rewarded with a lucrative posting in the US.’ In an interview years after the incident, the then RAW chief Amarjit Singh Dulat said, ‘On December 24, the day IC 814 was hijacked, it was not known that Tomar was on that flight, this was known later.’
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)