Prime accused held in Patna serial bomb blasts case: Police

October 28, 2013

Patna, Oct 28: People thrash a man whom the police detain and take away for questioning after a bomb blast outside the venue of BJP's Hunkar rally in Patna on Sunday.

Making headway in the Patna bomb blasts probe, police have arrested the prime accused involved in the serial blasts that left five persons dead.

"One of the accused, who is being considered as the mastermind, has been arrested till now. He has confessed how the planning took place," SSP, Patna, Manu Maharaj said.

Three-four suspects have been detained, he said, adding, "We are in the process of interrogation so things will be clear very soon".

Maharaj said there were six-seven persons accompanying the alleged mastermind.

"Based on that information, we conducted raids. Information was given to Ranchi and subsequently our teams have gone there," he said.

Patna city SP said investigation is going on "so we can't divulge a lot of details. The accused has confessed about the crime, how it happened. He told us that six-seven teams came to Gandhi Maidan and surroundings of Patna and how they planted the bombs".

Five persons were killed yesterday in seven low intensity serial blasts in Patna of which six bombs went off in and around the venue of Narendra Modi's mega rally at Gandhi Maidan shortly before his address before a huge gathering.

A total of 83 people were also injured in the bomb explosions in which timers were also used.

Tens of thousands of people had gathered at Gandhi Maidan to hear Modi.

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IndiGo CEO says less than 1,000 cancellations on Dec 6; normalcy by Dec 15

News Network

December 5,2025

New Delhi, Dec 5: IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers issued a public apology this evening after more than a thousand flights were cancelled today, making it the "most severely impacted day" in terms of cancellations. The biggest airline of the country cancelled "more than half" of its daily number of flights on Friday, said Elbers. He also said that even though the crisis will persist on Saturday, the airline anticipates fewer than 1,000 flight cancellations.

"Full normalisation is expected between December 10 and 15, though IndiGo cautions that recovery will take time due to the scale of operations," the IndiGo CEO said.

IndiGo operates around 2,300 domestic and international flights daily.

Pieter Elbers, while apologising for the major inconvenience due to delays and cancellations, said the situation is a result of various causes.

The crisis at IndiGo stems from new regulations that boost pilots' weekly rest requirements by 12 hours to 48 and allow only two night-time landings per week, down from six. IndiGo has attributed the mass cancellations to "misjudgment and planning gaps".

Elbers also listed three lines of action that the airline will adopt to address the issue.

"Firstly, customer communication and addressing your needs, for this, messages have been sent on social media. And just now, a more detailed communication with information, refunds, cancellations and other customer support measures was sent," he said.

The airline has also stepped up its call centre capacity.

"Secondly, due to yesterday's situation, we had customers stranded mostly at the nation's largest airports. Our focus was for all of them to be able to travel today itself, which will be achieved. For this, we also ask customers whose flights are cancelled not to come to the airports as notifications are sent," the CEO said.

"Thirdly, cancellations were made for today to align our crew and planes to be where they need to start tomorrow morning afresh. Earlier measures of the last few days, regrettable, have proven not to be enough, but we have decided today to reboot all our systems and schedules, resulting in the highest numbers of cancellations so far, but imperative for progressive improvements starting from tomorrow," he added.

As airports witnessed chaotic scenes, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) stepped in to grant IndiGo a temporary exemption from stricter night duty rules for pilots. It also allowed substitution of leaves with a weekly rest period.

Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu has said a high-level inquiry will be ordered and accountability will be fixed.

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