MUMBAI: An unidentified person called up a five-star hotel in Mumbai claiming bombs were kept at four locations there which he threatened to blow up and demanded Rs five crore to defuse them, police said on Tuesday.
After the man's threat call on Monday, the hotel located in suburban Andheri was checked.
An official from Sahar police station said as per a preliminary probe, it seemed to be a mischief and a fake call.
The hotel staffers later approached the Sahar police who registered an FIR against the unidentified caller under various Indian Penal Code sections including 385 (putting person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion), he said.
Multiple teams have been formed and efforts are on to nab the caller, he added.
Meanwhile, technical analysis of some mobile phone numbers mentioned in the messages threatening "26/11-like" attacks in Mumbai traced them to Uttar Pradesh and Haryana and teams of police will soon travel to these states, an official said on Monday.
The messages were received on WhatsApp on a helpline number of the traffic police's Worli control room around 11:45 on August 19 night warning of a "26/11-like" attack on the city from a phone number with Pakistan's country code.
Subsequently, a man was detained from Virar in Palghar district neighbouring Mumbai who has been quizzed by the crime branch for the last three days, the official said.
The crime branch of Mumbai Police is investigating the seven mobile numbers mentioned by the unidentified person in the threat messages.
"A technical analysis of the mobile phone numbers shows that some numbers are traced to Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. Teams of crime branch will travel to these states to find out about users of these numbers, their profile, and how the sender got these numbers," he said.
Refusing to elaborate, he said the man from Virar was questioned for the third day in a row to ascertain his version.
While one of the threat messages said that six people will execute the attack, another said preparations were on to blow up Mumbai which will bring back the memories of the 26/11 attack, police officials had said.
Mumbai police commissioner Vivek Phansalkar had said that prima facie, the threat messages came from a number that has the country code of Pakistan.
Police were also investigating the numbers and persons mentioned in the messages, he had said, adding that these numbers were Indian ones.
A squad of ten Pakistani terrorists, including Ajmal Kasab, had arrived in Mumbai by sea route on November 26, 2008, and launched terror attacks at various places killing 166 persons and wounding several others.