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VoIP hoax call from Chennai to Bengaluru cop keeps Kempegowda International Airport on edge

The mysterious alerts led to the airport authorities beefing up security for two days and deploying a bomb threat analytical team
Last Updated 24 June 2021, 02:22 IST

A man allegedly having a grudge against a police inspector called him up using VoIP and asked him to be careful about the flights landing at the Kempegowda International Airport.

The inspector assumed the call to be a hoax and ignored it but he had to raise the guard when he received two text messages in Kannada and Hindi on his official WhatsApp number.

The mysterious alerts led to the airport authorities beefing up security for two days and deploying a bomb threat analytical team. The alerts eventually turned out to be a hoax. Police launched a manhunt for the caller who they believe knows the inspector and has a grudge against him.

The officer who received the phone call and WhatsApp messages is Muthuraj T, the inspector of the Northeast CEN Crime police station.

The call came on Sunday night, and the person at the other end spoke Hindi. He warned about the flights and asked Muthuraj to have “some agreement”. The messages arrived around midnight and mentioned the flights landing on Monday evening and night.

Muthuraj saw the messages in the morning and decided not to ignore them. He alerted the airport authorities. A meeting at the terminal manager’s office decided to beef up security and alert the bomb threat analytical team as per the standard operating procedure. The threats turned out to be a hoax.

Police say the call and the messages were sent using the Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) disguised as a number from the UK. They have reasons to believe that the call was made from Chennai.

A senior police officer suspected the hoax caller had a personal issue with the inspector and wanted to take revenge by troubling him.

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(Published 23 June 2021, 19:21 IST)

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