UPSC aspirant held for Pak-linked bomb threat

New Delhi: A 23-year-old Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) aspirant was apprehended from Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur for allegedly impersonating a person associated with a cross-border organisation operating from Pakistan’s Lahore and telephonically telling his former roommate that they were selected for executing bomb blasts in Delhi, police said on Friday

New Delhi: A 23-year-old Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) aspirant was apprehended from Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur for allegedly impersonating a person associated with a cross-border organisation operating from Pakistan’s Lahore and telephonically telling his former roommate that they were selected for executing bomb blasts in Delhi, police said on Friday.

UPSC aspirant held for Pak-linked bomb threat

Police said the suspect, Suraj Verma, has been bound down for making statements conducing to public mischief and that a case in this regard has been registered at the Mukherjee Nagar police station under Section 353(1)(b)(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

“Investigation revealed that the bomb threat call, which purportedly claimed links with Lahore, Pakistan, was actually a prank orchestrated by Verma,” said deputy commissioner of police (northwest) Akanksha Yadav.

According to DCP Yadav, Suman Kumar called the Mukherjee Nagar police station on October 27 and said that his roommate Rohit Kumar and he were subjected to a bomb threat on a phone call from an unknown number.

“During the telephonic conversation, the unknown caller introduced himself with a religious greeting and claimed that an organisation based in Lahore, Pakistan, had been monitoring them and had selected them to execute bomb blasts in Delhi. When the complainant attempted to deter the caller by claiming that his father was a cabinet minister in the Uttar Pradesh government, the caller made derogatory political remarks and subsequently disconnected the call,” said Yadav.

In view of the threat call, students immediately alerted the police control room. Through technical probe, investigators traced the call to Kanpur and a police team raided the pinpointed location. The accused, Suraj Verma, was apprehended, the DCP said.

“Verma revealed that he was also a UPSC aspirant and had previously resided in the same accommodation at Indra Vikas Colony along with Rohit and Suman. In order to play a prank on his former roommate, the accused allegedly used a landline phone installed at a relative’s house in Kanpur and deliberately modulated his voice to create the impression of a caller associated with a cross-border organisation operating from Lahore, Pakistan. The threatening call was thus found to be a hoax,” added DCP Yadav.