JOIN USPolice picked up three people for questioning in connection with two hoax calls about bombs being planted in the Vidhana Soudha, the Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium and the Cubbon Park on Monday.
M G Nagendra Kumar, DCP (Command Control), told DH that a person who identified himself as Suresh had called the control room (Namma 100) claiming to have planted a bomb in the Vidhana Soudha, and then hung up. “When our staff called back on his number, his phone was switched off. The staff informed me about this call and we passed the message to the DCP (Central), Chandragupta,” Kumar said.
Not taking any chances, police dispatched the bomb disposal squad along with two sniffer dogs to the Vidhana Soudha and the Vikasa Soudha. Another team went to the Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium. After six hours of search, the police concluded that it was a hoax call. The entry and exit points of Vidhana Soudha, Vikasa Soudha and the planetarium were restricted for some time.
The police also checked the CCTV footage.
According to the police, the suspect’s phone number is under the radar and whenever he switches it on, his location will be tracked. They are also checking the call detail record (CDR) of his phone number.
In a similar incident on September 8, the police control room received a call that claimed that a bomb had been planted in the Cubbon Park. Police scanned the entire park before declaring the call a hoax. They are searching for the caller.
On July 7, 2017, police had arrested three men for a similar offence. The suspects, in a drunken stupor, had called the police control room from stolen mobile phones and claimed to have planted a bomb in the Cubbon Park. After being caught, they confessed to the police that they had made the call for fun.
DH News Service