MUMBAI, Sept 19: A 24-year-old man was arrested for allegedly making a hoax call about a bomb in the bustling Zaveri Bazaar area of Mumbai, police said on Monday.
The accused Dinesh Sutar, a resident Kalbadevi Road in south Mumbai, had allegedly called the Mumbai police’s control room on Sunday morning about a bomb planted at Jamkhed in Ahmednagar district, he said.
Sutar later called the control room again about a bomb placed at ‘Khau Gully’, an eat street, in Zaveri Bazaar area, following which the police swung into action and the bomb disposal squad also reached the scene, the official said.
The eateries in the lane were vacated within minutes and people were asked to stay away from the area, he said.
The police also informed the crime branch team and Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) about the calls made to the control room on their emergency helpline 112, he said.
The crime branch team tracked down the accused at Bhuleshwar after tracing the mobile phone number used to make the calls, he said.
Personnel from Lokmanya Tilak Marg police station called the accused and asked him to show them where the bomb was planted. They laid a trap and nabbed him within hours, the official said.
The accused has been arrested under sections 506 (2) (criminal intimidation), 505 (1) (B) (making, publishing or circulating any statement or report containing rumour) and other relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code, he said.
Sutar who hails from Sangola in Solapur district had come to Mumbai 10 days ago after a dispute with his relatives and was staying at Kalbadevi, where he worked earlier, he said.
As per preliminary probe, the accused was disgruntled as he had recently broken up with his girlfriend, the official said, adding that further probe is underway. (PTI)