A 25-year-old man has been apprehended for allegedly making a hoax bomb call regarding a SpiceJet flight from Bihar’s Darbhanga to Delhi, the police said on Saturday.

The man has been identified as Jay Krishan Kumar Mehta, who is a native of Supaul district in Bihar.

Advertisement

He had made the call on January 24, two days prior to the Republic Day, in an alleged bid to delay the flight’s departure because he arrived late and was denied boarding at Darbhanga airport.

According to the police, on Wednesday, a call was received at the IGI airport police station from the CISF Control Room regarding a call from SpiceJet airlines, which informed about a call from a person who stated that he had overheard two boys talking about a bomb on the said flight of SpiceJet.

According to police, considering the gravity of the situation and the call which had been made two days prior to the R- Day, the Delhi Airport was put on high alert.

“The flight landed safely at Delhi airport after which the aircraft was moved to an isolated bay for security search,” the police said.

Later, after complete search and verification, the threat call was found to be a hoax, and after that a case was registered.

It was during the investigation of the case the caller’s number obtained from the airline was subjected to technical surveillance, while the police team also scanned through the records with the airlines in connection with the flight bookings, which revealed about a passenger missing the flight.

After tracking the suspect, he was nabbed from Noida.

Based on suspicion, technical surveillance was mounted over him and manual intelligence was collected as he was regularly changing his locations.

“The accused was interrogated, who confessed his crime and disclosed that he graduated from Magadh University and presently working in a BPO company. He further disclosed that he had made the hoax call intentionally to delay the flight as he was late at the departure counter at the Darbhanga Airport. Accordingly, accused has been arrested,” the Deputy Commissioner of Police, IGI Airport, said.