JOIN USSources said around 8:30 pm, the State DGP Control Room received a fax claiming that some anti-social elements had planted a bomb in the Chennai Mail at platform one of the City Railway Station. The information was passed on to the Railway Police.
Bomb disposal and sniffer dog squads were pressed into service that searched the entire train before deciding that it was a hoax message. Railway officials, however, gave contradictory accounts of the incident. One official said that the message might have been sent by some passengers who were late but wanted to board the train. Such incidents had taken place a few times earlier also, he said.
Meer Arif Ali, Railway Police DYSP, on the other hand, termed the whole incident as a “routine check-up during the weekend”. He denied that any such incident took place. We make security checks during the weekend, he added.