Delhi police detain 25-year-old for sending bomb threats to airlines: ‘Wanted to get attention’

A 25-year-old man from Delhi’s Uttam Nagar was arrested for allegedly sending two bomb threats to several flights and airlines on Friday night, police said on Saturday.

A hoax ringer who made fake bomb threat calls at Mumbai airport has again claimed that 23 AI flights were under terror threat. (Prasad Gori/HT File Photo)

This is the second arrest by law enforcement agencies after more than 250 flights were affected by fake bomb threats last week. Mumbai police arrested a 17-year-old boy in connection with a bomb hoax on October 16.

On Saturday, police said the accused, Shubham Upadhyay, was nabbed from his house in Rajapuri area of Uttam Nagar. Police said he was unemployed and had left his studies after passing his 12th examination.

A senior police officer said Upadhyay had allegedly sent two threatening posts on social media, threatening to blow up flights bound for Delhi.

‘Copy flight schedule blamed for few flights’: Delhi Police

“We believe he copied the schedules of a few flights and pasted them together with a threat saying there was a bomb on these planes,” the officer said.

The two posts were sent to the IGI Airport police on Saturday morning, who are already on “high alert” due to regular prank messages.

Police said they immediately registered a case under the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Civil Aviation Act (US-SCA) and the criminal intimidation section of the NBS.

Usha Rangnani, DCP (IGI Airport) said, “We have taken immediate action and standard security protocols have been followed for all flights. The threat was found to be a hoax. During the investigation, the origin of the messages was traced to an account registered in Upadhyay’s name. Based on additional information, a raid was conducted and he was caught.”

During questioning, police said he admitted to sending the messages after seeing similar news on television. The DCP said, “He wanted to draw attention to himself and sent the messages as a prank. The matter is currently under further investigation.”

Police said they have beefed up security in and around airports and urged the public not to be “alarmed” as security measures around airports are sufficient.

Meanwhile, the Aviation Ministry has issued an advisory to airlines regarding the fake bomb threats and urged them to report the fake calls, messages, posts, etc. at the earliest.

Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu said the ministry plans to take strict action against the accused and the safety of passengers will not be compromised.