Mumbai police in 2am dash to Bandra station

The Mumbai police had a tough time on Sunday night when they had to scan the Bandra Terminus for explosives within minutes.

The drama began when the main police control room received a call informing them that the terminus would be blown up in a few minutes.

To make himself sound genuine, the caller dropped the name of a senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and stated that he was the officer’s ‘informer confidant’.     

The call, however, turned out to be a hoax. The police traced it and arrested a person, identified as Sultan Siddiqui, 22. Siddiqui is a resident of Gausia Compound of Nirmal Nagar in Khar (East) and a native of Allahpur in Allahabad, UP.

He has told the police that he works for a furniture shop in Bandra as a delivery boy.  

According to a source, a call was received at the main police control room around 2am. The caller said that the Bandra Terminus would be blown up in a few minutes.

“The caller said that he was not issuing any threats, but was giving crucial information to the police. He named a well-known senior police officer working in Mumbai and claimed to be his informer confidant,” said an officer from the control room. 

Assuming that the caller could indeed be an informer of the officer, the control room personnel alerted the local police. Wasting no time, the officers and a bomb squad scanned the entire Bandra Terminus late into the night. However, nothing suspicious was found.

The police then decided to trace the miscreant and registered a complaint at the Azad Maidan police station in this regard.

The number from which the call was made was traced to Saki Naka.  

The Unit 10 of the Crime Branch learnt that the number belonged to one Sahjeevan Ramlakhan Yadav. “Yadav, when questioned, told the police that his mobile phone along with the SIM card was lost a few days back. He did not block the number,” a crime branch officer said. 

The police then traced the number to Kurla Terminus station on Monday afternoon. “Siddiqui was planning to leave for his hometown on the 12.40pm Kamayani Express,” said the officer.
Siddiqui has been handed over to the Azad Maidan police.

The police are investigating why he dropped the name of the IPS officer. In 2004-05, three cases were registered against Siddiqui for assault and illegal possession of weapons.