Man from Gujarat held for threatening to blow up Ambani school

htmetro@hindustantimes

htmetro@hindustantimes.com

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Mumbai: A 34-year-old man from Gujarat was arrested on Thursday for allegedly making a hoax call threatening to blow up Dhirubhai Ambani International School with a time bomb on Tuesday.

According to the BKC police, the accused Vikram Singh Jhala is a driver and stays with his family in Morbi, Gujarat. He was picked up from his residence late on Wednesday and brought to Mumbai and placed under arrest early on Thursday.

Jhala had revealed his identity and given his location to the school authorities on Tuesday, when he had made those two hoax calls. After ascertaining that it was him who made the hoax call, the police arrested Jhala.

On Tuesday, Jhala had called the landline number of the school at 4.30 pm and it was forwarded to the mobile phone of the administration head. During this call, he claimed that he had placed a time bomb at the school.

Later, he called again, reaching the security cabin at the school’s gate, and this call was patched to a security officer at the school. This time Jhala had revealed his name and location, and had claimed that he had made the hoax call in order to become famous.

“Jhala had identified himself during the second call and we had his number and location. However, we needed to verify this information — whether it was an attempt to implicate someone else out of enmity.

“A team left for Gujarat, while another team in Mumbai stayed in touch with them to provide technical support in real time,” said an officer with the BKC police.

The officer added that based on cellular location mapping and registration details of the number used to make the bomb hoax call, the team in Gujarat confirmed that Jhala was indeed the culprit.

He was picked, in coordination with the local police, and after preliminary questioning, which confirmed his involvement, the team left with him for Mumbai. The police said that so far there has been no indication that Jhala is suffering from any mental health issue.