The accused, Pune businessman Pradeep Rasal, was arrested on Tuesday, police said.(Representational Image)A 32-year-old man has been arrested in Mumbai for allegedly spreading rumours of impending terror attacks across Maharashtra. The accused, Pune businessman Pradeep Rasal, was arrested on Tuesday, police said.
Rasal, who had come to Mumbai on Sunday, approached the Vile Parle police station claiming to have heard a group of men conversing in Hindi and Urdu on the Western Express Highway in Vile Parle East. They were allegedly plotting to carry out terror attacks in Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Nagpur and Kolhapur during Ganesh Chaturthi, he claimed.
Following this, the city police and the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad went into a tizzy and started inquiries. However, when Rasal refused to divulge additional details regarding, and after two days of probe failed to throw up any trace of a terrorist conspiracy, the police concluded that he had been bluffing.
Laxman Chavan, senior inspector, Vile Parle police, said that Rasal had watched several Bollywood films related to terror and decided to spin a story of multiple attacks. “He did so out of a sense of mischief and to cause panic.”
Arrested for spreading rumours, he was produced in court, which remanded him to police custody till Friday.
