Written by: Express News Service
3 min readAug 20, 2012 02:20 AM IST
First published on: Aug 20, 2012 at 02:20 AM IST
Following a flurry of hoax calls to the Mumbai Police Control Room over the past few days,mostly about blasts,the Dadar police station has recently arrested three men.
On Saturday,the control room got a call from a man threatening to bomb Jogeshwari railway station by 4 pm. When his number was traced,police found that the SIM card belonged to one Wahid Ansari,a resident of Dharavi,who was tracked down. He reportedly told the police that his SIM was being used by a friend named Mateen Ahmed. Police followed the trail and caught Ahmed on Sunday. He was booked under various IPC Sections and produced in a holiday court on Sunday. This was the third such arrest in recent days.
A senior inspector from the Dadar police station said,“Whoever commits such a crime does so to create panic and to trouble police and public. Citizens should be alert and not believe rumours.”
The first of these arrests took place earlier this month following two calls to the control room on August 4 around midnight. The callers warned the police of explosions at 13 locations between CST and Kurla. Disclosing their identities as Mohan Pawar and Pravin Tamke,they claimed to be behind the recent serial blasts in Pune.
The numbers were traced and the owners identified as a father-son duo of Tulsi Lali Mahato and Bali Mahato living in Nerul and Pune respectively. It was soon found that both had lost their cellphones. After keeping the numbers under scanner,the police located Pawar and Tamke in Roha,Raigad district,but they were able to establish their innocence too. Further investigations revealed that their ex-employee,Pravin Bhatia (27),had allegedly used their names.
The duo had fired Bhatia for an alleged theft two months ago. Later,Bhatia allegedly called them and threatened them with dire consequences.
With help from the telecom companies,police were able to nab Bhatia,who confessed to the crime. He was booked on August 9 and remanded in judicial custody till August 22.
On August 15,the control room received a call from Gangadhar Panigrahi (42),a resident of Navi Mumbai. He claimed that he had been in a scuffle with a stranger who had bombs and was planning to plant them at stations between Reay Road and Wadala. When Panigrahi was traced,he confessed to making the hoax call. He was arrested and remanded in custody till August 31.
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