CHENNAI: One too many drinks and a propensity for making hoax calls has turned out be an unfortunate combination for painter Raja, landing him in jail on Tuesday for making a hoax bomb threat to the Chennai Trade Centre in Nandambakkam late Monday night. The reason, say cops, was because he wanted to check if the police actually did their job.
The 30-year-old was picked up from his home in Kolapakkam during the wee hours after police traced the source of an anonymous call made to the emergency room at 11.30 pm on Monday. The caller, said police, began speaking in Telugu and stated that a bomb would explode in three different places at the Chennai Trade Centre within a matter of hours after which the person ended the call.
The call led to the guards at the Trade Centre being evacuated by the Nandambakkam Police and Bomb Disposal and Defusal Squads combed through the large premises of the exhibition centre. When all efforts to locate the fictitious bombs yielded nothing, police finally declared the call a hoax at 4 am.
Simultaneously, efforts to track down the origin of the call led to a house at Kolappakam where a sleepy and inebriated Raja was picked up. According to police, the painter had made the call while very drunk and could hardly remember having made the calls.
“He was drunk, he made the call and went to sleep while we were searching for the bomb. He hardly even remembers having done it,” said a police officer. “He denied it at first, but a quick look through his dialled numbers showed that to be a lie,” the officer said.
A native of Andhra Pradesh who had come to the city looking for jobs three years ago, Raja has been working as a painter at construction sites. Raja told the police that he had made the call to see whether the police actually checked places after bomb threats. A more thorough examination of his call logs also showed that Raja had regularly called several emergency control rooms, including the 108 (Ambulance) and 100(Police).