BENGALURU: In a strange incident, a frustrated flyer who reached Bengaluru from Delhi on a SpiceJet flight was upset due to the response he received from the call centre staff when he complained of a lost wallet on board the flight. In a bid to make them take his complaint seriously, Shreyansh Chamaria claimed there was a bomb inside his wallet. Thereafter, he was arrested by the airport police yesterday.
According to police, Chamaria arrived at Kempegowda International Airport by flight SG 8536 on December 26 at 9.20 am. On realising that his wallet was missing, he called up the SpiceJet call centre at Gurugram at 10.16 am. “He was asked routine questions by the person answering the call and put on hold by an executive. Sensing that his call was not treated seriously and desperate to get his wallet back, he claimed that it had a bomb in it and to locate it immediately,” a police source said.
When the executive asked for the location of the bomb, the passenger replied in Hindi, “I will not tell you. It will burst when it has to (Nahi bataunga jab fatna hoga, fatt jayega).” SpiceJet officials immediately alerted the airport police.
Meanwhile, SpiceJet crew managed to locate the wallet inside the flight at 10.59 am. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) was alerted and they formed a Special Bomb Detection Assessment Committee. “They assessed the situation and declared it non-specific. In simple terms, we assessed it to be a hoax,” said a CISF source.
The passenger, who runs a garment business, was arrested by the airport police near the SpiceJet counter and was thereafter produced before a district magistrate.
An FIR has been booked under Sections 505 (public mischief) and 507 (Criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication) of the IPC Act.