Brain addled by TV news, Juhu man sends police on three-hour tailspin

What started off as a short exchange of words on a wrong number call, ended up triggering a three-hour high-pressure situation for the police as there was a perceived threat to ISKCON temple

Mumbai: A Paranoid reaction can be triggered in many ways and as this Juhu resident showed on Tuesday, it can even be set off by a news on TV and a phone call — a wrong number.

HT Image

What started off as a short exchange of words on a wrong number call, ended up triggering a three-hour high-pressure situation for the police as there was a perceived threat to ISKCON temple. And this sparked off concerns, especially, in view of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled visit to the city on February 10. However, much to the relief of the police, it all ended as one big misunderstanding.

Sarvesh Kumar, who lives near the ISKCON temple in Juhu, was watching TV news coverage of a call threatening to attack Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, when his phone rang. The caller, without any greeting or introduction, said in Hindi, “I am coming on the 17th. Inform Yusuf.” When Kumar asked the caller to identify himself, he hung up.

Possibly anxious over the news of the threat call to airport, Kumar called the police control room and told them that he has received a threatening call. As he lived near the highly-secured temple, his location led to further confusion and rang alarm bells.

According to the Juhu police, they received a call from the police control room at around 12 noon on Tuesday, informing them of a possible threat to the ISKCON temple in Juhu. The personnel informed the Juhu police that a man from ISKCON had called and said he had received a threatening call.

“We immediately contacted the man and spoke to him at length. He clarified that he had nothing to do with the temple but stayed in the building near the temple complex. When the control room personnel had asked him for his location, he had named ISKCON as a landmark. We then moved on to the content of the call,” said Ajit Vartak, senior police inspector, Juhu police station.

“As it happened, Kumar was watching news coverage of the threat call made to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport on TV when he got the call and hence, assumed the worst. Thinking that an attack was imminent, he called the police control room,” said an officer with the Juhu police station.

The police took the caller’s number from Kumar and checked its registration details, and found out that it belonged to a resident of Jogeshwari. The information was relayed to Amboli police, who called up the man and asked him to come to the police station. The bewildered man came immediately.

“We made inquiries with him, and he said that he had not called anyone in Mumbai about his plans for the 17th. We also learnt that he was going to visit his nephew Yusuf in Bhopal on February 17 and had called him to inform him of the same, said Anil Paraskar, deputy commissioner of police, Zone IX.

“However, he dialled a wrong number and ended up calling Kumar, and on hearing a different voice, simply assumed that someone else had answered Yusuf’s phone and disconnected the call. Hence, he thought he’d ask whoever it was to relay the message to Yusuf,” said Paraskar.

The Amboli police went on to verify his claims and confirmed that he indeed had a nephew named Yusuf in Bhopal. He also showed the police the flight tickets that he had booked. After extensive inquiries, the police concluded that there was nothing suspicious about the call.

“The entire matter was cleared up within three hours. No case of any kind has been filed,” said Vartak.