Spurred after watching bomb hoax prank in Bollywood flick, 14-year-old called up police control room and notified them of a car bomb in his neighbourhood
A 14-year-old was let off lightly with only a warning after a mischievous prank played by him sent the police on a wild goose chase on Thursday.
The teenager dialled the police control room 100 and informed the police officials that he had spotted a car, fitted with a bomb, at Bhatwadi in Ghatkopar on Thursday
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Charged up after watching a Bollywood movie, the teenager called up the police control number (100), informing them that a car near his residence in Bhatwadi, Ghatkopar had been fitted with a bomb.
A bomb and dog squad was immediately rushed to the spot, and after searching for the vehicle for an hour the cops realised it was a hoax, as the four-wheeler was nowhere to be found in the area
Pressing the panic button, the cops swung into action and reached the spot but were left red-faced after the car with the licence plate number mentioned by the caller was nowhere to be found.
Incidentally, the random alphanumeric licence plate number blurted out by the teen happened to be a car owned by a police inspector. “When we asked the caller for the description of the vehicle, he had given us some random digits.
When we checked the details with the RTO, we got to know that the car was owned by an assistant police inspector, who resides at Nehru Nagar in Kurla,” Rajaram Vanmane, senior police inspector form Ghatkopar police station.
Embarrassed with the run around, the cops set their resources on nabbing the hoax caller. “The caller resides in Bhatwadi and after watching a Bollywood flick decided to call up the control room. After he notified us of the car bomb, we immediately dispatched the bomb and dog squad, who arrived at the spot at around 4 pm,” Vanmane said.
Tracked down
To their luck, the clumsy teenager had called from his grandmother’s mobile phone, which led the cops to his doorstep. “We managed to trace him because he used his grandmother’s mobile. If he had called from a PCO, then it would have been difficult to trace him. Since he was a teen, we let him off with a warning,” added Vanmane.
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