Man arrested in Kota for making hoax calls about bombs in Mumbai hostel, B'luru office

Kota: A 36-year-old man was detained from a hotel here on Tuesday for allegedly making hoax calls threatening to blow up an MLA hostel in Mumbai and a software firm”s office in Bengaluru, police said.

The man allegedly called up Mumbai and Bengaluru police on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday and told them that bombs kept at the hostel and the software company’s office would detonate in two hours, they said.

Kota Police was informed about the presence of the caller in the city’s railway station area later in the night, Superintendent of Police (SP) Gourav Yadav said.

A police team led by Assistant Superintendent of Police Praveen Kumar Jain and Deputy Superintendent of Police Bhagwat Singh Hingad detained the caller, identified as Piyush Purohit, from a hotel near the railway station under the Bhimganjmandi police station area on Tuesday morning, the SP said.

He is a native of Rajasthan”s Sikar district and lives with his parents in Maharashtra”s Dhule, he added.

On initial interrogation, the man admitted that he had made the hoax calls under the influence of alcohol and to gain sympathy from his family, Yadav said.

No criminal background of the hoax caller has come up so far, and Mumbai and Bengaluru police have been informed about his detention, the SP added.

Purohit used to work at a call centre but is unemployed at present, Sub-Inspector Chetan Sharma of Bhimganjmandi police station said.