Tipsy man's terror gag

Two days after a fibbing teenager had made the Delhi Police skip a heartbeat, a drunken middle-aged man's claim of having 'met a terrorist' aboard a Delhi-bound train threw them into a tizzy even as multiple bombs went off at Pune on Wednesday evening, sources said. Jatin Anand reports.

Two days after a fibbing teenager had made the Delhi Police skip a heartbeat, a drunken middle-aged man's claim of having 'met a terrorist' aboard a Delhi-bound train threw them into a tizzy even as multiple bombs went off at Pune on Wednesday evening, sources said.

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No case, however, was registered at north Delhi's Paharganj Police Station despite hours of commotion, which followed the questioning of the 'delusional witness' by senior officers, after they realised there was 'nothing worth taking cognisance of in the matter'.

"The man was travelling on a train from Punjab to the New Delhi Railway Station and had had a little too much to drink," said a senior police officer.

"The train had just left the station when, according to his story, a 'suspicious looking person' belonging to a particular community, entered his compartment and sat next to him."

The complainant told police his co-passenger engaged him in a 'strange conversation' which made him so suspicious that he dialled the Punjab Police.

The man claimed the Punjab Police told him they had no jurisdiction on the train which he was travelling on and that he should 'take it easy' till he reached his destination and inform the police after de-boarding.

"So, he rushed inside the Paharganj Police Station, reeking of alcohol, and started with his story. He even tried to link his sighting of the 'peculiar man' with the Pune serial blasts that were being flashed across television channels at the time," the officer said.

A few questions later, however, the police realised that all the man needed was a good night's sleep and something to counter the bad hangover he was bound to be afflicted with on the following morning.

He was allowed to rest at the police station before leaving on Thursday morning.

The incident comes just two days after a 14-year-old runaway from Bangalore had landed at the Nizamuddin Railway Station and claimed he was in on a conspiracy to bomb the capital on Independence Day.