Two held for hoax calls as police crackdown after rising instances

According to police officials, the first arrest was made by the Marine Drive police late on Thursday night. The accused, Sukumar Badal, is a resident of West Bengal and a team from the Marine Drive police station was on his trail for the last five days

Mumbai: The Mumbai Police on Friday made arrests in two cases of hoax calls made to two different establishments in the city. Meanwhile, an FIR was registered in connection with the hoax calls threatening to blow up three popular malls and hotels in the western suburbs earlier this week.

The Mumbai Police on Friday made arrests in two cases of hoax calls made to two different establishments in the city. Meanwhile, an FIR was registered in connection with the hoax calls threatening to blow up three popular malls and hotels in the western suburbs earlier this week (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

According to police officials, the first arrest was made by the Marine Drive police late on Thursday night. The accused, Sukumar Badal, is a resident of West Bengal and a team from the Marine Drive police station was on his trail for the last five days. He was picked up from the Malda district near the Indo-Bangladesh border on Thursday.

“The accused had called up the personal assistant to the Chairman of the State Bank of India on October 12 this year. Claiming to be calling from Pakistan, the accused had threatened to kill the Chairman and blow up the SBI building,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police Hari Balaji, Zone I.

Badal was produced in a local court in West Bengal, where the Marine Drive police received his transit custody and left for Mumbai on Friday.

“Once the team reaches Mumbai, we shall seek his custody from the Mumbai court, so that we can interrogate him as to the motive behind his actions,” said senior police inspector Vishwanath Kolekar, Marine Drive police station.

Sources said that according to preliminary inputs received from the Golapganj police station in Malda, Badal seems to be a habitual offender. In fact, his mobile number has been saved in Truecaller simply as “Fake.”

Meanwhile, another hoax call was received by the Mumbai Police control room at 8.49 p.m. on Thursday, where the caller said that a bomb had been placed in the Grand Hyatt hotel in Vakola. The information was relayed to the Vakola police and multiple teams, along with a Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) unit were rushed to the hotel. After an exhaustive search that lasted for several hours, nothing suspicious was found and the hotel was declared safe.

Based on the mobile number used by the caller and its location, he was identified as Suraj Jadhav (30), a swimming instructor by profession, who stays in the Kolivery Village in Kalina. Officials said that Jadhav is an alcohol addict and made the call under the influence of alcohol. He has also been arrested for similar crimes by the Vakola and BKC police stations in the past.

“We had arrested Jadhav in April this year in a similar crime and he had recently been released on bail,” said senior police inspector Pradip More, Vakola police station.

The two arrests come close on the heels of a hoax call received by the police on Tuesday, where an unidentified caller had threatened to blow up the Infiniti Mall in Andheri, the PVR Mall in Juhu and the Sahara Star hotel in Vile Parle. All three locations were searched and declared safe and on Thursday, the Azad Maidan police registered an FIR against in connection with the matter.

Senior police inspector Bhushan Belnekar of the Azad Maidan police station said that the FIR was transferred to the Turbhe police station in Navi Mumbai for further inquiries.

A senior officer said the caller was in Kalyan when he made the call. “A subsequent analysis of the caller’s movements immediately after the call indicated that he boarded a train and went to Uttar Pradesh,” the officer said.