6 year old detained for bomb hoax

The Thane anti-terrorism squad (ATS) has detained a six-year-old boy, a resident of Dombivali, for allegedly making a hoax call to the railway police helpline twice. The boy claimed he had planted a bomb at Dombivali railway station. Investigation revealed that he had seen a recently-released Marathi film and tried to re-enact a scene from it.

According to the Dombivali railway police, on December 31 at around 2:30 pm its helpline received a call from an unknown number. “The caller claimed he had planted a bomb at the railway station. Within a few seconds all police teams were informed about the call and a dog squad and bomb disposal squad were pressed into service. Because of this, the train was delayed for half an hour in the afternoon,” a police officer said.

The entire Dombivali-Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus train and nearby areas were searched, but nothing suspicious was found, the police said. “It was clear the caller wanted to create panic among commuters and waste the time of the government machinery. A case was later registered at Dombivali railway crime branch police against the unknown caller,” the officer said. The Thane ATS team then traced the details of the caller from the call detail record.

A police officer said, “The caller was from Dombivli (east) and a police team went there. The police first took the father of the boy for interrogation. Nothing came out of it. Later, the police was shown the call records of his wife’s cellphone who told officers that their child might have been the culprit. With the help of a few social workers, we asked the boy whether he was responsible for the call. After spending an entire day with him, the boy came clean. He had seen the helpline number on a poster. Calling the number, he mimicked the actor whom he had seen in the film.”

The police arranged counselling for the couple and the child and released them after a warning.