INDIA. Mumbai: The Mumbai Police arrested one Ashwin Mhaiskar (29), a Nagpur resident from Palghar, on Saturday on charges of making a hoax bomb call and passing on false information that a huge quantity of explosives had landed in the city. The accused called up the south region control room of the Mumbai Police at about 1.35 p.m. on Friday. Soon the police swung into action.
They carried out searches at multiple locations, including the landing points, and sensitive and crowded areas, and beefed up the security. The call was discovered to be a hoax after extensive investigation. This was the eighth hoax terror call received by the Mumbai Police this year.
The accused, without identifying himself, told the police that there would be a blast in parts of south Mumbai, including a government hospital and crowded places in the city.
He informed the police that 90 kg of explosives had already landed on February 23 in a coastal area and would be used to carry out bomb blasts in different parts of south Mumbai. He told the police that the blasts would take place at Bhendi Bazar, the JJ hospital area, Null Bazar, etc.
“After working on the technical clues, the officials of the JJ Marg Police located the caller in Dahanu in the Palghar area. He was traced and arrested in the matter within nine hours of the crime,” the police said.
After the call was termed a hoax, the JJ Marg Police registered a case (No. 74/2023) against the caller and booked him under sections 506 (2) (criminal intimidation), 504 (1) (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 179 (refuse to answer the public servant), 182 (false Information) of the Indian Penal Code and began to look for the caller. Subsequently, they traced out the accused.
Senior Police Inspector Subhash Borate, Police Inspector Anup Dange, PSIs Rupali Kadam and Rajendra Murdare, and others carried out the operation under the supervision of the Additional Police Commissioner (south region).
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