NEW DELHI: Is all fair in love and war? Probably not!
Just to delay a flight on which their girlfriends were supposed to travel, three men made a 'hoax bomb call' to Spicejet Call Centre at Delhi Airport, triggering extreme panic and putting the security agencies on their toes.
One of the accused, identified as Abhinav Prakash (24), who works as a trainee ticketing agent for British Airways, was arrested by the police.
Sharing details of the incident, DCP (IGI) Ravi Kumar Singh said information was first received at the Spicejet call centre regarding a bomb in flight no. SG-8938 which was bound to depart for Pune at 9.30 pm on Thursday.
"The information was immediately escalated to the CISF control room and was further transferred to the IGI airport police station. The security agencies at CISF immediately swung into action and a coordination meeting of all stakeholders was organized as the bomb threat was specific," DCP Singh said.
The Spicejet Airline which was bound to take off to Pune, having 182 passengers and crew members on board was immediately taken to the isolation bay of the Airport and was parked there.
Meanwhile, a call was also made to the Fire Department that rushed two fire engines to the Delhi Airport in case of an emergency.
"All the passengers and their luggage were properly checked and frisked by the CISF. Further, the aircraft was also thoroughly checked and no suspicious item was found," the official said.
After securing the flight, an FIR under sections 182 (False information), 341 (wrongful restraint), 505 (1)(b) (Statements conducing to public mischief) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code was registered and a full-scale probe was launched. A team was constituted that obtained ownership of the mobile number with which the hoax call was made.
"The same was found in the name of Abhinav Prakash, a resident of Dwarka, Delhi. Immediately a raid was conducted at the given address and the accused was apprehended and subsequently arrested," said the official.
When interrogated, the accused disclosed that his friends namely Rakesh alias Bunty and Kunal Sehrawat, who recently went on a road trip to Manali, became friends with two girls in Manali. Both the girls were departing to Pune via flight No. SG-8938 of Spicejet Airlines.
"His friends told him that they wanted to spend some more time with their girlfriends and instigated the accused to find out a plan to somehow delay their departure from Delhi. All three formulated a malicious plan of making a hoax bomb call at the call centre of Spicejet Airlines, with an ulterior motive of getting the flight cancelled," the official said.
The official further said the accused person to boost their "false bravado" contacted the girls who were onboard and when they came to know that the flight had been delayed, they even celebrated the execution of their malevolent act.
Meanwhile, accused Abhinav's two friends Rakesh Bunty and Kunal Sehrawat went absconding after they learnt about their friend's arrest.