2 more hoax calls to Mumbai cops; one caller made 32 calls in 2 weeks

One of the two threat callers had made 38 such calls in the past two weeks.

An officer said that on Monday they received a call from a woman speaking in English, who claimed that bombs had been placed in Colaba, and Nepean Sea Road area and sought police help. Police checked the areas she mentioned and found nothing suspicious.

The police team traced the call to a 40-year-old woman in Malabar Hill. An officer said that when they checked their records, they found that she had made 38 calls in the past two weeks. “The earlier calls were not threat calls. In some calls, she did not even speak. Even this time, when we asked her about the threat call, she didn’t answer,” an officer said.

“It was upon speaking to her 70-year-old mother whom she lives with, that we found she was suffering a mental health condition,” the officer said.

Apart from this case, another person called the Mumbai Police Control room on Monday, claiming that a bomb had been planted at Kamathipura lane 12. Police searched the area and found the information to be fake. The number was traced to a person who the police suspect to have made the call under the influence of alcohol.

In both cases an FIR was registered. An officer said that if someone is mentally ill, they have to be lenient in dealing with the case.

An officer said that in the past five months, Mumbai Police have received more than 80 fake or threatening calls. An officer said they have been pondering over various measures to deal with the threat-call menace, and are mulling on passing stringent laws against it.