Mumbai: In yet another hoax bomb call within a month in the city, a drunken man sent the police on a wild goose chase for almost two hours on Tuesday by informing them that explosives were planted by anti-social elements at five major railway stations across Mumbai.
A similar incident took place on July 18, when a drunken chef called the police control room and informed them that bombs would go off at Mahalaxmi Race Course.
At 1.55am on Tuesday, the duty officer at Byculla railway station received information via the police control room that four bombs were placed at strategic locations at Byculla station and that they would explode at 3.40am. The duty officer alerted the bomb detection and disposal squad (BDDS) and the dog squad. Till 3.40am on Tuesday, the entire station premises from platform number one to four were searched thoroughly, but the scare turned out to be a hoax.
The control room then received another phone call from the same person alerting them that there were bombs placed at Dadar, Parel, Matunga and Prabhadevi stations as well.
“The caller told us that bomb had been planted at five different locations,” said M Inamdar, senior police inspector attached to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) GRP.
The officers then called up the mobile number from which the control had been receiving the calls. The caller, however, refused to give any information about him.
“We then traced the call and reached Pokhraj Compound at Sonapur in Bhandup, where we found that the calls were made by one Razzak Khan, a labourer” added Inamdar.
“When we questioned him, Khan said that he made the hoax calls for fun and wanted to scare the police,” said Inamdar.
The CSMT GRP has registered a case against Khan under sections 182, 505 (1) (b) and 506 of the Indian Penal Code. Officials said that GRP has been on alert for Independence Day and all calls are taken seriously.