Techie makes hoax bomb threat call to delay flight, held

BENGALURU: A 49-year-old software engineer, who missed boarding his Air India flight from Bengaluru to Surat on Monday evening, allegedly made a threat call to the Kempegowda International Airport, saying a bomb had been placed in the aircraft.
But Air India staff and CISF officials sanitised the flight before declaring the threat a hoax and detained the techie, Prateek Rathore Mahesh Bhai, before he could board the flight.

Prateek was from Surat and had come to Bengaluru on Sunday with his wife and son to attend a wedding. Slated to take a 7pm flight back home, the family reached KIA late and found that boarding had been closed.

Prateek walked out of the terminal building. Around 6.57pm, the KIA got a threat call. Air India staff and CISF personnel suspected that Praeek could be behind the call as he had just walked out of the terminal building. CCTV footage showed Prateek speaking on his phone at the exact time when the threat call was made.

Airport police swung into action and took Prateek into custody. Police sources said Prateek hoped he could catch the flight if he could delay its departure.