Jaipur trader gets fake bomb in cake

JAIPUR: A garment trader in Raja Park’s Panchvati Circle on Friday received a bomb-like device concealed in a cake with a letter demanding Rs 10 lakh.
Additional commissioner of police (crime) Ajay Pal Lamba said the device did not have any explosives or detonators but contained small batteries and a few nails.
The series of events began shortly after 4.30pm when an e-rickshaw driver arrived with the cake in a box at Vibhu Gupta’s shop.
The driver handed over the box to Gupta which had a small message on the top saying “Gupta tere liye surprise hai” (There is a surprise for you inside).
When Gupta opened the box slightly, he saw some wires jutting out of it and a note, which asked him to travel in the same e-rickshaw with Rs 8 to Rs 10 lakh. The letter also threatened that if he failed to pay, the bomb would explode.
Shaken after reading it, Gupta refused to take the box and returned it to the driver. According to Lamba, the driver took the cake home and found a digital watch, batteries and wires inside it.
“Shocked, the driver threw the box in a culvert. About the same time, we received a complaint at Jawahar Nagar police station from the trader,” Lamba said.
SHO Panna Lal examined CCTV footage outside Gupta’s shop and tracked down the rickshaw driver. “We also found the box and the device in a culvert and brought it to the police station,” said an official. The driver claimed that a woman near a hotel in Raja Park paid him Rs 50 to deliver it to Gupta.
The driver claimed he could not identify the woman, but police have constituted a special team to track down the woman.
‘Bomb’ design leaves cops perplexed
The bomb-like device contained three batteries, a ticking digital machine and three batteries usually used in home appliances. “The design indicates that it was a rookie job because it was a complete prototype of a bomb sans any explosive materials or anything to trigger it,” said an official.
Hunt on for the woman who sent the gift
A police team was examining CCTVs to ascertain the identity of the woman who asked the driver to deliver the box to Gupta. Despite an intensive search, police said they don’t have anything to confirm who the woman was.