On Saturday (12 August) the Mumbai Police arrested a 43-year-old man for making a hoax call alarming that there is a “100-kg” bomb in Mumbai. According to the crime branch of Mumbai Police, a tailor named Rukhsar Ahmed called the Mumbai Police control room number late on Saturday night informing them that a 100-kg bomb was placed somewhere in Mumbai.
Later, the Police officials arrested him from his home in the Melvani area of Mumbai. He has been booked under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including section 506-II (pertaining to criminal intimidation).
A crime branch official said that during the interrogation, police also discovered that Ahmed had made 79 calls to the control room of the Mumbai Police in the last five months extending grievances about several issues.
The official added that the accused seems to be mentally unstable and a further probe in the case is underway.
Meanwhile, in the past seven months, numerous helplines and control rooms of the Mumbai Police have received around 31 bomb-scare-related calls. But each one of these threat or warning calls was either found to be a hoax or unfounded.
During the same time period, the authorities also received a few hoax suicide calls.
The police have arrested around seventeen people in connection with these hoax calls.
As per police officials, mental illness and drunkenness are the root causes of the hoaxes. The main control room receives bomb or other security threat-related calls around five to six times a month on an average basis.
A senior police officer said, “The Mumbai Police’s helpline numbers receive a lot of phone calls and we try to solve citizen’s issues. Whenever we get a call, within 5-6 minutes, our team reaches the spot. Threat calls are taken seriously. I urge people to refrain from making hoax calls.”
Earlier, on August 6, the Police arrested a 25-year-old man from Juhu for allegedly making a hoax call to the Mumbai police. On the call, he claimed that serial bomb blasts would take place in local trains across the city.
Earlier, in June, a 19-year-old man from Puducherry was arrested by the Mumbai Police. The arrest came days after he had allegedly made a call to the Haryana police warning about bomb blasts at the international airports in Mumbai and Delhi, which later turned out to be a hoax.
Later, in a statement, Mumbai Police said that the accused identified as Jatin Prajapati was arrested from Puducherry. He was traced by the cops with the help of his mobile phone location.
