Hoax call warns of bomb in Rashtrapati Bhavan

Delhi police personnel along with a bomb squad and elite units such as special cell, crime branch and security wing minutely scanned the Rashtrapati Bhavan premises for hours after a caller claimed that he had planted a bomb in the President’s House on Monday evening.

The call, however, turned out to be a hoax. “The caller threatened to blow up Rashtrapati Bhavan. A thorough check was conducted, which took hours, and it turned out to be a hoax call,” DCP (New Delhi) Jatin Narwal said.

An anonymous caller from central district put the Delhi police in a tizzy after he made two PCR calls stating that he has planted the bomb in the city. The caller was later traced by the police, but could not nabbed as he was changing his location, said sources.

The first call was made at about 6 pm when a caller from central Delhi’s Daryaganj told the police that “he wanted to talk to police commissioner B.S. Bassi.” When the call operator told him that Mr Bassi was no longer the city police commissioner, the caller wanted the line to be connected to Mr Bassi’s mobile phone, said the sources. The caller then told the call operator that he was fixing a bomb, but did not specify any location. On the basis of his location, a police team from central district managed to reach to his location, but the caller was found absconding. In the meantime, he made another call to the police claiming that he had planted a bomb in the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Soon after this call, the security agencies started a thorough search operation of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The bomb disposal squad, dog squad and local police conducted the search operation of the President’s Estate till 8 pm.

During investigation, the police found that the second call was made from the same mobile number and the caller was the same. When a policeman called him, the caller told him that he was depressed due to a fight with his family. He also apologised to the policeman for troubling the police.