Mumbai Police receives another hoax terror call, man arrested

An officer said that the south region control room received the call on Friday at 1.35 pm. The caller, who did not identify himself, claimed that a day earlier, some explosives had landed on the Mumbai port to be used to carry out blasts at J J hospital, Bhendi Bazaar and Null Bazaar in south Mumbai. When the police control room officer asked for his details, the caller hung up.

As per protocol, the police carried out searches at the spots mentioned by the caller but no explosives were found. Following this, the staff of the police control room, led by Senior Inspector Anup Dange, found that the call was made from the cellphone number registered in the name of Nagpur resident Ashwin Mhaiskar. The police traced him to Dahanu, from where the call was made.

A team from J J Marg police station went to Dahanu and found a bar which Mhaiskar would frequent. After taking assistance from the local police, the Mumbai Police tracked Mhaiskar down to the bar and arrested him. He was brought to Mumbai early Saturday and produced before the court, which remanded him to police custody.

An officer said, “He says that he made the call under the influence of alcohol.” The officer added that Mhaiskar was unemployed.