Hoax bomb call to catch missing flight; arrested

Jaipur/New Delhi: A man was detained today for allegedly making a hoax bomb call after missing a Jaipur-Mumbai Indigo flight, an official said.

Mohit Kumar Tank (24), a choreographer with a dance reality show, made the call to Indigo’s call centre in Gurgaon claiming that a bomb has been planted on Indigo flight 6E218, CISF commandant at Jaipur International Airport Y P Singh told PTI. He said the flight’s departure time was 5 am but it took off at 4.52 am.

“Since Tank could not reach the airport on time, he made a call to the Indigo call centre at 5.30 am. We traced the accused and handed over him to Sanganer police, the official said.

ACP East Ashok Chauhan said the accused has been detained, booked and further investigation into the incident was underway.

By the time Tank made the hoax bomb call, the flight was about to land in Mumbai. Upon landing, security agencies took about three hours to clear the aircraft for further schedule operations.

IndiGo also issued a statement confirming the incident.

“The IndiGo call centre received a call at around 5:30 am from an unidentified person mentioning a bomb threat to 6E 218 operating a Jaipur-Mumbai flight. We immediately reported the matter to Bomb Threat Assessment Committee (BTAC) and followed all laid down security protocols,” it said. 

“The authorities concerned carried out the investigation and declared the call as ‘specific bomb threat’. Following the clearance by the authorities, operations will be resumed as normal,” the statement said.