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Angry with GRP over clearing encroachment, drunk hawker makes a terror hoax call
The man who evaded arrest for two months was apprehended on Tuesday by the GRP crime branch after the brother of the accused alerted them about his new mobile number and location
Mumbai: Annoyed with the Government Railway Police (GRP) over clearing encroachment outside the Dadar railway station, 21-year-old Rahul Ravidas, a hawker, decided to take revenge. In a drunk state, he called the GRP helpline on June 28, alerting them of a possible terrorist attack in the city as bombs were planted at Dadar, Parel and Bandra railway stations.
The man who evaded arrest for two months was apprehended on Tuesday by the GRP crime branch after the brother of the accused alerted them about his new mobile number and location.
He told the police that he just wanted to play a prank on them for harassing him to move away from the railway station.
Ravidas told the police that on June 28, he was in an inebriated state outside Dadar railway station when he made the call after seeing the GRP helpline number posted on the pillar.
According to Arshuddin Shaikh, senior police inspector of the GRP crime branch, after getting the call at 10pm the officers searched all the three railway station premises for more than three hours but found nothing and the call turned out to be a hoax.
Shaikh said that a case was registered against the caller for spreading fear and making a false call. “We then obtained his details from his mobile service provider and traced the address registered for getting the SIM card. Our team had gone to the address in Jharkhand,” said Shaikh, adding that the team met his relatives, but his parents and brother too had not heard from him since June 28, and therefore, our team returned to Mumbai.
On Tuesday, Ravidas’ brother Shripat called the crime branch officers and informed them that Ravidas was in Mumbai and had changed his mobile number. Based on the information given by his brother, police traced the location of his new mobile number and tracked him to the house of his friend in Kurla.
“Ravidas had been hiding in his friend’s house for the past two months,” added Shaikh.
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