Police evacuate Leela Hotel following hoax bomb threat

At least 700 people were evacuated from Gurugram’s Leela Hotel during a two-hour-long search operation on Tuesday, following a call which reported a bomb threat at 11

At least 700 people were evacuated from Gurugram’s Leela Hotel during a two-hour-long search operation on Tuesday, following a call which reported a bomb threat at 11.45am. The call was later found to be a hoax made by a 25-year-old autistic man.

Police evacuated all the guests at the hotel, as sniffer dogs and bomb squad searched for explosives.\ (vipin kumar /HT Photo)

The caller was tracked down soon after but police decided not to pursue any legal action against him. “The man is undergoing treatment for autism at a private hospital in Gurugram. We verified his medical documents and spoke to the doctors treating him. Since he wasn’t aware of the repercussions of his action, we decided not to take any legal action against him,” said Vijender Vij, deputy commissioner of police (DCP) (East).

According to police, the man asked his parents for chocolates while they were on their way to a hospital in Gurugram from Delhi. When his parents refused, the man got angry and decided to call the Leela Hotel, a five-star property in Gurugram’s Sector 24, warning them about a bomb on the premises. Vij informed that he made the call from his mobile phone without the knowledge of his parents. “He has been visiting a private hospital in daycare since April this year for his therapies,” he said.

The caller disconnected the call after reporting the threat and switched off his mobile phone, police said. The call sent the hotel staff into a frenzy and they immediately alerted the police. “Soon after, senior officers and personnel from three police stations carried out a search operation,” said Vikas Kaushik, assistant commissioner of police (DLF).

There were over 700 guests and staffers in the hotel at that time, police said. Police went about evacuating each of them, as sniffer dogs and the bomb squad searched for explosives in the hotel. “All standard operating procedures were followed in the evacuation process and the hotel was sealed. We had fire tenders and ambulances on standby,” Kaushik added.

The search eventually yielded nothing. The police, however, used the phone number to track down the caller. “He was in a state of panic after he realised his mistake,” Vij said. The DCP added that the nearby mall was not evacuated.

Guests and visitors at the hotel found themselves in the grips of fear and panic. Vikram Rana, a Delhi resident, said that he was in the hotel to meet a client when the incident took place. “The client was staying at the hotel so we could not leave the premises and waited there for almost three hours until police announced that everything was under control,” he said.

Sneha Singh, a guest at the hotel, described the situation as scary. “We reached Delhi on Sunday and were scheduled to catch a flight on Tuesday night for London. We ran outside without even picking up our stuff. My friends and relatives had to travel from Delhi and take us away,” she said.