When blinking lights on Air force Station wall kept IAF, police officials on toes

Bengaluru: A blinking light that had fallen on the compound wall of Jalahalli Airforce Station 40 days ago gave sleepless nights to the police and the Airforce staff. Though they kept a vigil for around 15 days surrounding the Airforce Station, no concrete information was available nor were any suspicious objects like drones found near the premises again.

The sentry of the Airforce Station had noticed some blinking lights in the night near the compound wall near Kathanagar Railway bridge close to Jalahalli West. The panicked guards couldn't see what exactly it was as it was night, but they saw blinking lights passing through the compound.

They immediately searched for the source of the light in the surrounding area and also alerted their senior officials. The Airforce guards and other officials suspected that a small drone was used to capture the images of the sensitive area.

The officials informed the Gangammanagudi police. Dharmendra Kumar Meena, deputy commissioner of police (North) deployed night patrolling personnel from Gangammanagudi and Jalahalli police stations. The police had camped for 15 nights, but they couldn't find anything.

The police collected the details of the people using drone cameras in North Bengaluru and questioned them if any one of them had used drones surrounding the IAF station, but no concrete information was available from them. Even the residents of the surrounding areas were questioned, nearby apartments and colonies were checked for any drone activity but reached a dead-end. The police informed the senior officials that they patrolled along with airforce guards but found nothing suspicious.

A senior officer said, "It is a one-time unverified incident, which couldn't be confirmed after putting lots of efforts. We are in constant touch with Air Force officials and are coordinating with each other about the incident and we are being vigilant to suspicious persons and objects.

A junior officer said they had taken a complaint from Jalahalli Airforce staff and treated it as "Non Cognizable Register" (NCR). "We suspect the guards may have seen lights of the plane and mistaken then for drones.