BENGALURU: The city police on Tuesday arrested the bomb hoax caller who had repeatedly sent the security at the Kempegowda International Airport on a wild goose chase, besides delaying a few flights.
The arrested has been identified as A Krishnamurthy, a 35-year-old chef.
The police had sought the help of the Internal Security Division (ISD) and railway police after he made a threat call to KSR Railway Station too on Monday.
A senior police office said special teams, including ISD personnel, railway police along with the city police had launched a manhunt for the accused after he made the threat calls. After identifying the caller, the police had contacted one of his friends who works in a private company.
Several teams also had been searching for him in 18 areas in and around the city since Monday. The officials also visited Krishnamurthy’s hometown Shivalli in Kundapura and questioned his father, a bank employee and two of his sisters.
The family told the police that he left the house six months ago and did not turn up. They are not aware of his whereabouts and his working place too. The accused had also contacted Just Dial service centre to get contact numbers of airlines on the pretext of booking flights. Then he made calls to the airport that an explosive was planted in a particular flight.
A few of the flights were delayed following the repeated hoax calls from the last one week.
Krishnamurthy used two SIM cards to make calls and used to switch off the mobiles soon after making the calls. He spoke in fluent English and Hindi, and used to move from the area on foot. The police had also gathered CCTV footage to ascertain his movements.
Caught at Byappanahalli Metro Station
Krishnamurthy was caught at Byappanahalli Metro Station and was taken to the Airport police station. He had not been travelling in the Metro for the last one week. A team of policemen were deployed in Majestic bus stand and railway stations to track him. But he came to know that the police were in search of him and never came near these places. “Several autorickshaw drivers also were approached to gather information about his movements, but we did not get any leads. Finally the team held him around 5.30pm. He is not giving any reason on why he made the hoax calls,” a police officer said.