A 37-year-old man from Agra in Uttar Pradesh has been arrested for making threats to blow up the Taj Hotel and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport.
The said call was received on May 27 at Mumbai police’s control room where a man had given a warning about bombs being placed at the spots mentioned above. After hours of search operation by police along with the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squads (BDDS) and the Anti-Terrorism Squad, they found nothing suspicious and declared the call a hoax, subsequently, a case was registered against an unknown person.
On the same day, police traced the number in Agra and a team from Worli police was sent to the location to arrest the caller. With the assistance of a cyber cell and local police, Arvind Rajput was arrested from his house. However, the number the police traced did not belong to him but to a local vegetable vendor whom the cops reached first. The vendor had no idea who made the call, later he revealed that Rajput had borrowed his phone for some time when the call was made. When Rajput called the control room, along with the message of bombs being planted, he had provided a contact number - instructing the cops to contact that number for further information.
During the interrogation, Rajput said that he was ‘frustrated’ when he made the phone call as he had a quarrel with his girlfriend. The number Rajput provided belonged to his girlfriend, said a police official, adding that Rajput wanted to get back at his girlfriend for fighting with him and upsetting him.
On Friday late at night, Rajput was brought to Worli police station. He has been booked under section 505 (statements conducting public mischief) and 182 (providing false information) of the Indian Penal Code.
