Hoax bomb call sends Patna airport staff into tizzy

PATNA: A hoax call that a bomb was planted on the airport premises sent the security officials into a tizzy at the Jayaprakash Narayan International (JPNI) Airport here on Sunday night. Security was beefed up at the airport on Monday in view of the call which was made at around 9.35pm on Sunday on a landline number of airport terminal manager office.
An employee at the terminal manager office brought the matter to the notice of senior officials of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and Airports Authority of India (AAI) immediately after receiving the call.

Airport officials said the entire terminal building, car parking area, apron and office building was scanned by CISF and the state police personnel, but no bomb was found.
General manager (project), AAI-Patna, and officiating Patna airport director K S Vijayan told this newspaper on Monday that a complaint was lodged against the fake caller at Sachivalaya police station.

“The caller, who is yet to be identified, told the employee at the office of terminal manager that Patna airport par bomb phatne wala hai (A bomb will explode at Patna airport). When the officials asked for his identity, the caller replied that he was calling from Kolkata and disconnected the call. The voice of the caller seemed like that of a child,” Vijayan said.
He added, “The police were immediately informed about the call. The CISF personnel, bomb disposal squad and Bomb Threat Assessment Committee at the airport were activated. The entire airport building was searched thoroughly but no suspicious object was found. The search operation was carried out without causing any inconvenience to passengers. The last flight took off from Patna airport at 9.40pm.”
According to AAI-Patna officials, security has been beefed up at the city airport and passengers are frisked twice or thrice as a precautionary measure.
Sachivalaya DSP Rajesh Singh Prabhakar said police have begun an investigation into the case and efforts were on to identify and arrest the caller.
In a similar incident, a hoax call was made by a six-year-old boy from Belaganj in Gaya district to the airport director’s office in September last year. The kid was let off after his parents signed a bond and pleaded for mercy.