Odisha: Man held for making threat calls at Biju Patnaik International Airport

BHUBANESWAR: A man, who repeatedly made hoax calls on the official landline number of Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) on Thursday and threatened the officials ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the State, was nabbed by police on Friday.The miscreant has been identified as Basant Prusty (53) of a village under Baideswar police limits in Cuttack district.

“Prusty was earlier working as a paper hawker in Khandagiri area. He used to smoke cannabis and make calls after collecting phone numbers from the papers,” a policeman said.

According to airport officials, the miscreant identified himself only by his surname Parida from Khandagiri. He was speaking in Odia and hurling abuses at the officials. He also inquired about the flight tickets and smuggling of cannabis and drugs from the airport.Prusty, who made repeated calls at airport office on Thursday, was calling police stations in the Capital also. A cop posted at Khandagiri police station told this newspaper that the miscreant was calling them for over last three months and verbally abusing them.

After making repeated calls at airport office, the miscreant called Khandagiri police station at about 3 pm on Thursday.According to cops, the miscreant was calling on the official landline number of Khandagiri police at least 30 times in a day, starting 8 am to 11 pm. On one occasion, the miscreant had asked a lady police personnel over the phone what she had in her lunch.Apart from hurling abuses, the miscreant also used to ask the cops whether they were corrupt or not. Khandagiri Police had earlier arrested him for harassing them in a similar manner.