BENGALURU:THE identity of an anonymous caller who made a hoax call to Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) about a bomb threat on Monday has been established by the police - thanks to his carelessness. The individual is set to be nabbed very shortly, an official said.
The accused is A Krishnamurthy(35), a native of Udupi, presently based in Bengaluru. He was already wanted in a case relating to theft of a laptop in a company he worked here.“The call, received at 9.45am on Tuesday by the terminal manager at BIAL, warned of an explosion around 1pm due to a bomb planted either in the parking bay or the lobby of the airport,” the source said.
“The airport security police and the Central Industrial Security Force personnel swung into action and extensively searched all the six parking bays, the lobby and other areas inside the airport for half-a-day on Monday. We knew it could be a hoax call but scanned all places extensively as we cannot take any chances,” he said.
The call was traced by the police immediately and it was understood to be made from a spot near Shantala Plaza in Malleswaram. “The IMEI number of the mobile too was traced. The caller immediately discarded the SIM card but used another SIM on the same mobile. He has made calls to Kundapur and Mysuru as well as to KR Puram and two other places in the city,” the source said.
One team has been sent to cover Kundapur and Udupi and another to Mysuru to track him. “The numbers were registered in his name with his address specified as KHB Colony in Udupi. We will be nabbing him very soon,” he added. “This is the first time this year that BIAL has received a hoax call on a bomb threat within its premises. The previous such call came last year.”