20-year-old engineering student held over tweet on ‘bombing’ Bengaluru airport

Police said that on December 10, the accused, from his identified account ‘futureftsufjan’, wrote on Twitter: “I will bomb the blr (Bengaluru) airport j so they can rebuild one closer to the city.” While the tweet was later deleted, it had garnered attention

The Northeast crime division of Bengaluru police on Thursday arrested an engineering student for his tweet about “bombing” the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA).

Bengaluru airport is located in Devanahalli, which is approximately 35 kilometres from the centre of the city (Representative Photo)

The accused, identified as Vaibhav Ganesh, 20, is a third-year engineering student and is a resident of Kudlu Gate in the southern part of Bengaluru, police said.

Police said that on December 10, the accused, from his identified account ‘futureftsufjan’, wrote on Twitter: “I will bomb the blr (Bengaluru) airport j so they can rebuild one closer to the city.” While the tweet was later deleted, it garnered attention.

Based on the complaint of the airport’s terminal manager, the Kempegowda airport police station on December 12 registered a case under sections 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) and 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication) of the Indian Penal Code against the accused, police said.

Following the complaint, the Northeast division police formed a special team and launched a probe along with the cyber crime police to nab Vaibhav and the arrest was made on Thursday. The police also seized his mobile phone through which the tweet was made.

During interrogation, the accused told the police that he was finding it difficult to travel between his residence and the airport, as it was far and that he made the tweet “out of frustration,” the police said.

Meanwhile, Anoop A Shetty, deputy commissioner of police (DCP), Bengaluru’s Northeast CEN division, asked people to refrain from making such threats. “A student has been booked for making a hoax bomb threat to KIA. BOMB THREAT isn’t a joke. Please refrain from making such threats,” he wrote on Twitter.

Bengaluru airport is located in Devanahalli, which is approximately 35 kilometres from the centre of the city. Many have raised complaints out of frustration as they face a lot of issues travelling to the airport since it is located on the outskirts of the city and lacks affordable transport.