Indian man imprisoned in Singapore for taking bribes for passenger bags under report weight

A 37-year-old Indian national was imprisoned for eight weeks and fined $ 800 in Singapore for accepting bribes to under-report the weight of passenger bags on a flight at Changi Airport in the country, a media report said Tuesday.

The New Paper reported that Hiteshkumar Chandubhai Patel, who worked as a customer service partner for logistics service provider UBTS between January 2015 and November 2016, was ordered to pay a penalty of $ 800 for the offense he committed.

Patel’s responsibilities at the work place included assisting passengers at boarding gates and check-in counters for Tigerair flights.

However, he took money from an Indian national named Gopal Krishna Raju, who ran a side business of buying gold in Singapore and sending it to Chennai to be sold.

“Instead of using a courier service, he would look for travellers to Chennai to help him carry the gold over in their luggage, and they would in turn get paid by his relatives there,” the tabloid website reported.

Patel’s offense came to light after an internal investigation was carried out by Singapore Airport Terminals Services following a report published in the New Paper on 13 July last year, claiming that Changi Airport operated a baggage-touting syndicate.

The prosecution said that corruption in the air travel industry was potentially detrimental to Singapore’s reputation as a global aviation hub.