Ludhiana: The police have registered a case against an unidentified person for making a hoax call to the assistant manager of Sahnewal airport about planting bombs on four flights coming to Ludhiana. The incident occurred on February 18, but the police lodged the FIR on Wednesday after investigation.
Pawan Kumar, an employee of the Airport Authority of India and assistant manager at Sahnewal airport who is complainant in the case, said on February 18, when he was on duty, he received a call on his mobile phone from an unknown number at 3.45pm. The caller posed as Navdeep Navi of Ludhiana and said that bombs would be planted on four flights within 24 hours, and if possible, try to save the airport.
Following the call, the entire security of Sahnewal airport conducted a detailed search operation and the police were also informed.
Focal Point SHO inspector Davinder Sharma said, “There is only one flight that arrives at Sahnewal airport. When the caller said four flights, we understood that it was a hoax call as the caller did not know about the frequency of flights. When the call was made, one flight was expected to reach Ludhiana, but it was yet to take off from Delhi. The airport authority in Delhi was approached and checks were conducted. Meanwhile, the police found the mobile number was of a Ludhiana resident, Navdeep Singh Navi. After detailed verification and investigation, the police identified that the caller made a call through some software, but the number that was displayed was of Navdeep. The investigation took time, so the FIR was lodged late.”
Probe is on to trace the actual accused. A case has been registered under sections 505 (statement conducing to public mischief), 506 (criminal intimidation), 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication) and 182 (false information with intent to cause public servant to use his lawful power to the injury of another person) of the IPC.
The inspector said earlier too someone had misused Navdeep’s number for some fraud. Investigation of that case is also pending.