‘Bombs’ near homes of Mukesh Ambani, Amitabh Bachchan? It was a hoax call

The man stays opposite a police station and is fascinated by their work and therefore wanted to check if the Mumbai police could reach him after making the hoax call.

A 20-year-old visually impaired man from Lonikhand in Pune has been detained for allegedly making a hoax call about bombs purportedly planted near the bungalows of superstar Amitabh Bachchan, veteran actor Dharmendra and industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence Antilia, according to the crime intelligence unit (CIU) of the Mumbai police crime branch.

Amitabh Bachchan: Actor Amitabh Bachchan is seen.

The man stays opposite a police station and is fascinated by their work and therefore wanted to check if the Mumbai police could reach him after making the hoax call.

A police officer said, “The man had made the call to the pan-India single number Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) — 112, meant for citizens in emergency. He claimed that he had seen around 25 people gathered near television actor Dilip Joshi’s (Jethalal Gada of Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah) house in Shivaji Park and that they were speaking about carrying out blasts near bungalows of industrialist Mukesh Ambani, Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra. The men, he said, also had weapons and explosives with them.”

The caller later gave his number and told the emergency response system personnel that he was also a policeman, but on leave and gave his address as a resident of Hingoli in Marathwada region.

The ERSS officials based in Nagpur center received the call and immediately informed the Nagpur police about it. They forwarded the information to their counterparts in Mumbai.

“We started tracking the caller, but found his phone switched off. The phone number he had given to the control room turned out to be from New Delhi. Our teams even picked up the person from Delhi, but on verification found out that he was not the caller,” said a police officer from Mumbai crime branch.

“After getting more details from ERSS, our team headed by inspector Milind Kate tracked the caller through his cell number, and he was picked up from Lonikhand,” said a police officer.

“He suffers from near-sightedness and is unable to see beyond a certain distance. The local police station is near his house, and he keeps visiting them on a regular basis. He knows how they function and is fascinated by their working style.

“He watches TV a lot and then decided to make a call taking names of famous people. He even told the ERSS staffer that he himself was a policeman,” said the officer.

Prashant Kadam, DCP of Mumbai crime branch, said, “We have detained him and also seized his phone. We will hand him over to the Shivaji Park police where a case has been registered.”