The content head of Netflix India has been summoned by the government amid the massive controversy surrounding 'IC 814', a web series on the 1999 hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight.
Netflix IC-814 plane hijacking tended with the release of three prisoners including Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, Masood Azhar, and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar in exchange for Indian passengers held hostages at the Kandahar Airport in Afghanistan. The incident exposed the Indian government's biggest security lapse in decades.
As per NDTV, the summons from Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry comes after hundreds of social media users accused the makers of the web series of deliberately changing the names of the hijackers to "Bhola" and "Shankar".
The web series is directed by Anunbhav Sinha and is inspired by the book 'Flight Into Fear: The Captain's Story' Devi Sharan, the captain of the flight, and journalist Srinjoy Chowdhury.
On 24 December 1999, Indian Airlines flight IC 814 took off from Kathmandu, Nepal, with Delhi, India as its intended destination. The flight left with 180 persons on board, including both the crew and the passengers
Netflix series in episodes gave a 360-degree view of the hijacking. The hijackers released 27 of 176 passengers in Dubai but fatally stabbed one and wounded several others while ultimately all passengers released a week-long hijacking.
In the Netflix series, India's RAW and Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) high-ranked officers discussed who would be put under the bus once the hijacking plane episode was over as it was a complete security failure.
