KALABURAGI: A passenger travelling on Karnataka Express train triggered panic after making a hoax bomb threat call, which led to the train being halted and searched at the Wadi Railway Station for several hours in Kalaburagi district early Sunday morning. The accused, Deep Singh (33), from UP, was arrested by the Wadi Railway Station police and has been remanded in judicial custody at Chittapur jail, officials confirmed.
The police said the railway control room received a call around 1 am warning of a possible bomb on the Karnataka Express travelling from Delhi to Bengaluru. The train was stopped at Wadi station, and a thorough search was conducted with the help of a bomb squad and sniffer dogs. Over 40 personnel from the Railway Protection Force , local police and the bomb disposal team searched the train from 1.30 am till 4.30 am.
Thousands of passengers were made to get down and all the 22 coaches were searched. With no explosives found, the call was confirmed as a hoax. The investigation revealed that Deep Singh, who was heading to Guntakal, made the call using his father’s phone.
He later tried to remain unnoticed by switching the phone to flight mode. But he was traced through the Truecaller app, which also provided a photo of the caller.