Mumbai: Man held for making hoax call to ATS

Drunk man dialled the ATS control room in order to teach friend a lesson. (Representational)

An unemployed man looking to get even with a friend over a loan the latter was yet to return found himself in trouble after allegedly dialing the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad’s control room recently, claiming his friend had stored crude bombs and a gun inside his saloon in Malad East.

The call was made on September 6. The caller claimed Mohammad Mukhtar Ahmad (46), a barber at Super Hair Dressing located in Triveni building, Kurar village, had been handed two crude bombs and a countrymade revolver three days ago. The ATS communicated the message to the Kurar police station. However, a police search of the premises and questioning of Ahmad yielded nothing.

An officer from Kurar police station said the mobile phone number from which the call was made was traced to 27-year-old Malwani resident Suresh Keni. “But he claimed he wasn’t using the number. When we showed him that the number had been registered using his Aadhaar card, Keni claimed someone then had acquired a copy of his Aadhaar and used it without his knowledge,” the officer said.

Further inspection of call detail records revealed that it was being used by Virar resident Sameer Vedak (34). He was taken into custody after it was established that he made the call to the ATS control room.

Senior inspector Udaykumar Rajeshirke said Vedak previously lived in Kurar and was a regular customer at Ahmad’s saloon. “A few months ago, Vedak had lent Rs 20,000 to Ahmad for his daughter’s wedding. Ahmad was yet to return the money despite several reminders. So on September 6, after consuming a lot of alcohol, Vedak dialled the ATS control room in order to teach Ahmad a lesson,” he added.