Guj: Man held for sending bomb blast mail to Mumbai-based TV channel

Ahmedabad: A 32-year-old man from Ahmedabad in Gujarat was arrested by the city crime branch for allegedly sending an email to a Mumbai-based television channel stating that a bomb blast will take place at a gurdwara here, officials said on Saturday.

The mail turned out to be a hoax.

The accused, Nilesh Parmar, ”confessed” to have sent the email, containing the bomb threat, to an official of the entertainment TV channel after not getting a favourable reply for a proposed television serial project, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Crime, Chaitanya Mandlik.

On November 2, the TV channel’s legal officer informed the Bangur Nagar police station in Mumbai that an unidentified person had sent an email stating that a bomb blast would occur at a gurdwara in Ahmedabad. The sender ‘nilesh1360@gmail.com’ had also claimed that a ”Rafale fighter jet will be used for the bomb blast” and payment to carry out the task has already been made from Ahmedabad.

After receiving the message from the Mumbai Police about the threat mail, the Ahmedabad crime branch nabbed Parmar from his residence in the Chandkheda area of the city on Friday. He was subsequently arrested on the charges of promoting enmity and hatred between classes and causing fear among the public, the crime branch said in a release.

As per the preliminary investigation, Parmar used to work for a television production house in Ahmedabad. He went to Mumbai in 2013 to discuss a television serial project with officials of the prominent entertainment channel, it said.

However, since Parmar was denied entry into the office of the channel at that time and there was no response about the proposed project to date, he sent the email out of grudge, the release added.