The police control room received two phone calls last Thursday about bombs being planted at two educational institutions.

One was from Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial School at Chamarajpet at 8.50 am and the other at Seshadripuram Composite Pre-University College at Seshadripuram at 9.30 a m. The available anti-sabotage squad split into two and rushed to both the spots only to learn that they were hoaxes.

From July to mid-September, the control room had received ten such calls warning about bombs being planted at various spots and all of them turned out to be hoaxes.

Precious police hours indeed go waste due to such mischief, opines Additional Commissioner (Law and Order) Bipin Gopalkrishna.

A hoax caller enjoys making the police force appear stupid. And this could be the psychology behind the mischievous calls he makes, opines Deputy Commissioner of Police, VIP Security, V Thimmappa . But there is no way we can ignore them as we cannot take chances when it comes to the safety of people. 

It is  quite a group which has to rush to the spot at very short notice. Carrying  out the operations smoothly requires three-four bomb detection and disposal technicians, two sniffer dogs, two dog handlers, and one officer to supervise the team, said Head Constable of bomb squad,  S K Ramesh.

Mischief mongers using landline or mobile can be traced but it is very difficult to nab the callers if they make the call from a PCO and walk away, says Assistant Commissioner of Police, Control Room, A Raghuveer.

What the law says

Such callers can be booked under Section 505 (b) of the Indian Penal Code that deals with statements conducive to public mischief. 

It states that “Whoever makes, publishes or circulates any statement, rumour or report (a) with intent to cause, or which is likely to cause fear or alarm to the public or to any section of the public whereby any person may be induced to commit an offence against the State or against the public tranquility shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to three years or fine or with both. 

However, the law does not treat those who make calls in a mentally unbalanced or inebriated condition as offenders, said a top police officer.

Control room calls

The City police control room receives between 15,000 and 20,000 calls each day, says Raghuveer.  Of these, 30 per cent fall under the crank category.

“Men who are bored, drunk, looking out for mischief or suffering from sleeplessness are the main callers,” he adds.

With 100 being an easy to recall and toll-free number, it is a favourite among many for all their problems, he says.

Calls received range from the entry of snake into a house, water-logging outside houses and no power supply in the area! 

We used to receive upto 30,000 calls earlier. But with the cooperation of mobile service providers, we have now ensured a situation where a call from Udipi will go to a control room there and not come to Bangalore. 

The callers plead for mercy when they are trapped, said Thimmappa specifying the recent case of a bomb hoax at CM Kumaraswamy’s residence. The accused, Sharanappa Walge, who belonged to Indi  taluk made a call one afternoon that a bomb was implanted at ‘Anugraha’. He broke down when he was confronted by the police.

Plight of the force

With Bangalore emerging as a must-visit destination in India due to its IT prowess, VIPs all over the country and abroad falling under the Z and Z-plus category frequent the place. And this puts the existing security force of 138 (nearly 100 more are expected to join them) and 15 sniffer dogs under tremendous strain, say police sources. Of these, only eight are trained in bomb  detection and disposal.

The shocking aspect is that there is no insurance coverage for the team which puts its life at stake.

Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh are among the states which provides a Rs 5-lakh risk coverage and 50 per cent of montly salary as special pay  for their staff, they say. 

The security staff deployed at Vidhana Soudha, the State Intelligence and the Corps of Detectives do get a 33 per cent special pay, they said.

“As this is a disciplined force, there is no way they can protest over the discrepancies,” the sources say. “Only God has to safeguard them when they do their job,” one of them adds philosophically.