Mumbai Police have detained four minors, including the son of a local businessman, in connection with a bomb threat targeting an Air India flight from Mumbai to New York. The arrests, carried out late Monday night in Chhattisgarh’s Rajnandgaon, followed the emergency diversion and safe landing of the aircraft in Delhi.
A five-member special team from Mumbai Police arrived in Rajnandgaon and apprehended the suspects late on Monday. The investigation is centered on the businessman’s son, who has a history of making such threats; he was previously arrested for threatening to bomb a train. In this instance, he is accused of hacking another individual’s email account to send the bomb threat.
The police team seized laptops, mobile phones, other electronic devices, and the suspect’s vehicle for forensic examination. Authorities are also interrogating the four minors separately, with assistance from local police personnel in Rajnandgaon. A cyber team has analyzed the suspect’s electronic devices, including email and call records, to trace any potential connections. The investigation aims to establish how the accused accessed the email account used for the threat.
The suspect’s father, Mangulal Agarwal, operates a mobile and computer business in the city. The family, originally from Dongargarh’s Moosra village, relocated to Suncity in Rajnandgaon four years ago. Reports suggest that the business had been temporarily closed before the incident. According to police sources, several cases have already been registered against the minor suspect at both Rajnandgaon Kotwali and Dongargarh police stations.
It was yesterday the bomb threat was issued against an Air India flight carrying 239 passengers. The aircraft was diverted and safely landed at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, where all passengers were evacuated as a precautionary measure. Security teams conducted an extensive search of the aircraft but found no explosives onboard.
Mumbai Police confirmed that no bomb was found in the aircraft, and the threat has been declared a hoax. The Mumbai Police Commissioner has announced the formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT), led by 2015-batch IPS officer Manish Kalwania, to further investigate the incident. Authorities remain vigilant as they continue to trace the origins of the threat and pursue those responsible.