Mumbai: Hoax caller asks 5-star for Rs 5 crore to help defuse bombs

MUMBAI: The Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) and a sniffer dog of the police carried out a four-hour frisk-and-check operation in 380 rooms and a few thousand square feet of the remaining area of a five-star hotel in Andheri (east) after it received two bomb threat calls on its landline telephone number on Monday evening. Nothing was found and the call was believed to be a hoax.
The squad reached the hotel after its staff received two calls from a mobile number, at 5.30pm and 6.02pm, warning about four bombs planted on the hotel premises and the caller demanded Rs 5 crore to reveal the method to defuse the bombs. A police team and cyber officials were tasked with tracking the caller, who was to make a third call and explain where and to whom the money was to be sent.
A first information report (FIR) was filed against an unknown person under Section 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others), Section 385 (putting a person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion) and Section 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication) of the IPC.
"The call is suspected to be a hoax after the BDDS carried out the check and failed to find any explosives in the hotel. It is suspected that the caller could be someone who wanted to take some personal revenge or may be done by some disgruntled customer," a senior officer from the Sahar police station said.
In the police complaint, hotel staff member Paresh Bavdane said: "The caller threatened the hotel's general manager and his family if the money is not paid."
The bomb hoax call was the fourth threat received by various establishments in the past two weeks.
After the latest bomb threat, an industrial security company sent out an mail to all the important establishments in Andheri (east) to be careful and beef up security measures. "The BDDS team carried out checks in an MIDC hotel too after it received the mail on Tuesday morning. The mail was sent by a security agency asking the hotel to take necessary security steps," DCP Maheshwar Reddy said.