Hoax calls continue to ring in Capital

NEW DELHI: The bomb scares continued in the Capital for the second day. After a dozen hoax calls on Saturday, the Delhi police on Sunday received a call about a bomb at India Gate. The Police Control Room received a call around 10:55 am informing them about a bomb at the monument. A bomb disposal squad rushed to the spot. The area around the monument was evacuated and cordoned off. A thorough search revealed nothing.

“We have checked the area and nothing has been found. Such calls only waste time and stretch our resources. These crank calls should not be made,” said Manish Aggarwal, Additional DCP, New Delhi. Though the call was traced to a PCO booth near the Patiala House court complex, police are clueless about the identity of the caller. Meanwhile, a youth has been arrested for allegedly making a series of hoax phone calls claiming that explosives have been planted at various places in the national capital, police said on Sunday.

Shadaab, 18, was arrested from Welcome locality of Northeast Delhi after police got information that he had been making the phone calls from a stolen mobile phone.
According to police, he had made three phone calls between from the number 9312451668 to the police control room claiming that bombs were planted at Akshardham temple, Gurudwara Sisgang and PVR Plaza multiplex in Connaught Place.

“The three calls to our PCR vans were made within three minutes from a mobile phone,” said Madhup Tiwari, deputy commissioner of police (east). “We have registered a case. Initial investigations showed that he made the calls just for fun,” he added.