Most hoax threat calls remain undetected

As many as 43 hoax bomb calls were received in the city this year, of which a majority were people threatening to blow up railway stations, sources revealed. Surprisingly, most of these cases remain undetected, with only 10 people arrested in connection with them till April end and only seven cases registered against prank callers. With an increasing number of hoax calls and most culprits being untraceable, authorities are finding it difficult to bring the guilty to book.

According to police records, to which The Asian Age has access, railway stations received 10 hoax calls and mails this year; prominent landmarks of the city received nine such calls; airline offices six calls threatening to blow up aircraft; and religious places one call threatening to blast the place. An additional 17 calls were received threatening to destroy streets and areas in the city.

Furthermore, only two persons were arrested out of the 10 hoax calls about railway stations, while three cases were put on record and five arrested out of the nine threat calls about landmarks.

In the cases of the 17 other threat calls, only two people have been booked. These calls included one threatening to kill actor Salman Khan, another to blow up a Borivali court, and a third about a bomb planted in Antop Hill police station in south Mumbai.

When contacted, security agencies of Mumbai airport said cases had been registered in all matters and investigations were underway. However, callers were yet to be traced.

In certain cases — like the one where on January 22, one Sanjeev Mishra called about a car loaded with explosives roaming about on airport premises — callers were caught but released on medical grounds.

Whenever there was a threat call, city police and other security agencies had to frisk locals and passers-by, which the latter found irksome. Explaining the process, an official said the whole place that is deemed under threat is checked with the help of sniffer dogs and metal frames by the special bomb detection squad and only after checking, is a call termed as hoax. However, agencies like the Anti-Terrorism Squad and others have to work for a long time and conduct procedures like call-tracking and identifying callers. Similarly, at airports and railway stations, agencies have to check the mentioned trains or aircraft, and passengers have to bear with the long drawn out frisking process.

Commenting on such callers, psychiatrist Dr Rajendra Barve said that such people dereived pleasure out of troubling others and sometimes, they even did it to catch a train or flight which they might have otherwise missed.

“They have low self-esteem,” he said.