Hoax bomb threat at Karnataka Raj Bhavan, investigation underway

The phone call came on Monday night to the NIA control room and claimed that the bomb could go off at any time, putting authorities in a tizzy.

The Karnataka governor's residence on Monday night came under the radar of officials after an anonymous call threatening that there was a bomb planted inside. However, after extensive searches, cops concluded that the call was most likely a hoax.

The official residence building of the Karnataka Governor in Bengaluru. (Arijit Sen / HT Photo)

The phone call came late on Monday night to the National Investigation Agency's (NIA) control room and claimed that the bomb could go off at any time, putting authorities in a tizzy. The Bengaluru police department was immediately alerted and sent to the site.

Police combed through the governor's official residence but found nothing suspicious. Officers have ascertained that the call was made from North Karnataka's Bidar district, which shares a border with neighbouring state Maharashtra. However, efforts are on to trace the culprit.

Shekhar H Tekkannavar, Bengaluru's Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) for the West division, told reporters, “The NIA control room received an anonymous call in the midnight following which the Bengaluru police was alerted. After the intense search nothing was found. We are investigating the matter. So far no one has been arrested.”

In a similar incident recently, as many as 48 schools in Bengaluru received threatening emails indicating that bombs had been planted on their premises, which led to a panic situation amongst authorities, students, parents and staff. However, all of the messages were a hoax, police said.

(With inputs from PTI)