Rajkot: Taking a cue from Bollywood potboilers, a 20-year-old youth tried his luck to earn some quick buck by scaring a factory owner, but ended up paying a huge price for his devilish plot. Police arrested accused Jiten Lodhi on Saturday for sending a parcel with a bomb-like device to a ceramic factory at Sartanpar road of Wankaner in Morbi district two days ago.
The security guard at a ceramic factory received a parcel on Thursday evening, which he handed over to the factory owner, Hardik Ghodasara. When Ghodasara opened the parcel, he found a paper with a mobile number and his factory’s name written on it with a red marker pen. The contents also had a white colour box which contained a circuit, a digital clock, some wiring and a battery attached to it. Scared that it may be a bomb, the factory owner soon informed the police while at the same time he also tried to contact the number found written on the piece of paper.
While the calls to the number went unanswered, Ghodasara received several text messages in Hindi threatening him to drive in the direction he was told along with the parcel.
Another message warned him not to inform the police and threatened him that an actual bomb has been sent in to his house which they will explode if he dares inform cops. “Ye to sirf tuje batane ke liye tha, asli dhamaka to tere ghar me hoga.” (The parcel was just to warn you, the real explosion will take place at your home.)
In the meantime, cops rushed to the spot with a bomb disposal squad which had been called from Rajkot. The squad, however, found no explosives inside the ‘parcel bomb’.
Superintendent of police, Morbi, S R Odedara told TOI, “We had formed six teams to hunt for the mischief monger. Utilizing human intelligence as well as technical expertise, we traced the accused, Jiten Lodhi, a native of Madhya Pradesh who came to Morbi to search for work as he was jobless for the past few months owing to his nature. He was in need of money and tried the filmy trick to scare the owner into getting his way.”