BENGALURU: Massive security checks were carried out post 1 am on Wednesday inside the Karnataka Express from New Delhi and at all stations en route within the South Western Railway (SWR) Zone following a hoax call to kill passengers inside the train as soon as it entered the State.
An alert on the call was received by the Government Railway Police (GRP) in Karnataka from the Railway Control Room in Agra on Tuesday evening.
The caller also added that one of his male relatives on board the train had the explosives in his possession.
A top railway source reported the caller from Agra as stating, "As soon as the Karnataka Express enters the Karnataka border there will be a blast and it will kill a maximum number of passengers.”
The Bomb Disposal Squad, the Railway Protection Force, and the GRP swung into action along with sniffer dogs as soon as the train entered Kalaburagi station which falls within SWR limits.
“The train was thoroughly checked by the teams. An alert was issued at all the stations en route. Karnataka Express later enters Andhra Pradesh and re-enters Karnataka at Hindupur station. Massive checks were carried out at Hindupur railway station too. The checks continued until the train reached KSR Railway Station at 1.40 pm on Wednesday,” he said.
The relative in question has been interrogated by the cops. “He seems to be a relative of the caller. His guilt is yet to be proved,” the source added.
Karnataka Express (Train no. 12628) had departed from New Delhi at 9.15 pm on December 13 (Monday) and reached Bengaluru City at 1.40 pm on Wednesday after running for more than 40 hours.
The call was possibly made by an individual in a drunken state, the source opined. “However, we do not take any chances and hence stringent security checks were carried out,” he added.
SWR CPRO E Vijaya said that as soon as the information was received, the Bengaluru Division swung into action. “All the onboard staff were altered to be on the lookout for suspicious activity or objects and report anything unusual immediately. They were not informed of the content of the call,” she said.
As per Standard Protocol, constant liaison with State Police and GRP was maintained.