Mangesh Ahirwal, 21, a research fellow at Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), was arrested on Tuesday for making a hoax call to Forum Mall on Monday.
He confessed to the police that he was inspired by the Hindi film ‘Mumbai Meri Jaan’ and committed the act.
Details of the case
On Monday evening, Ahirwal had called the police control room and informed that explosives were planted at the PVR Cinemas at Forum Mall in Kormangala.
After a thorough search, the police realised it was a hoax call.
It did not take police too long to nab the caller, who had used his cellphone to make the call.
He was arrested from his flat in Gollahalli, where stayed along with two of his friends.
The police booked him under Section 507 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) for criminal intimidation.
According to police, Ahirwal was angry after C-DAC (a premier research and development (R&D) organization under Ministry of Communications and Information Technology) management allegedly commented about his informal dress style.
“Fed up with the comments, he first called Madiwala police station. When no one responded to his call, he dialed the police control room’s number,” police said.
Ahirwal, who hails from Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh, had arrived in the city just last month.
What happens in the Hindi Film
In “Mumbai Meri Jaan”, the character Thomas (played by Irfan Khan), a coffee vendor, makes a hoax call to a shopping mall after he is insulted in the mall over his dress style.
In the film, Thomas goes scot-free but seems Ahirwal was not that ‘lucky’.