Drunk man’s hoax call strikes terror

Taking threat perception serious the state police chief Neelmani N Raju doled out a fax message to her counterparts in the other states including alerting Intelligence Bureau and ADGP Railway

A 65-year-old drunk ex-serviceman sent the police in at least four southern states into a tizzy, making a hoax call to the Bengaluru city police control room hinting at possible terror attacks in major south Indian cities.

The caller, Swamy Sundar Murthy, spoke in Tamil and broken Hindi. He told the control room staff that he was calling from Hosur and claimed to have information on possible terror attacks on trains and buses in major cities of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Maharashtra.

Soon after, the control room staff brought it to the notice of police top brass.

State police chief Neelmani N Raju, meanwhile, faxed the information to her counterparts in other states to avert untoward incidents, before even probing the caller’s authenticity and credentials.

A special team who probed the caller’s antecedents found it to be a hoax. Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths formed a team and arrested Murthy, a resident of Munivenkatappa Layout in Avalahalli on Saturday morning.

Upon questioning, he told the police that he had an intuition that terror attacks are going to happen. Interrogation also revealed that he was an alcoholic and made the call allegedly in an inebriated
state.

“During interrogation, he told us that he gets possessed by some divine souls who make prophecies and his call was based on one such vision,” said additional commissioner of police Alok Kumar.

Murthy also told the police that he was an ex-serviceman, but is now a tipper lorry driver. Murthy’s two sons are serving in the army, while he was staying with his third son in Avalahalli, the officer added.