Man behind Jet Airways flight hoax tweet surrenders in Jaipur

A 24-year old youth whose hoax tweet about a bomb in a Jet Airways plane on an international flight triggered a scare and led to its emergency landing in Muscat surrendered today before Jaipur police.

A HR executive with an MNC financial firm, Surinder Pratap, whose twitter handle carried the tweet, was neither detained nor arrested by Jaipur police since it said no case was registered against him in the city.

However, Pratap, has been kept under surveillance of the local police till he is taken into custody by a Mumbai police team which is expected to reach there tomorrow. Hailing from Ludhiana in Punjab, Pratap is staying in a rented flat with seven others in the outskirts of Jaipur city, police said.

A Dubai-bound Jet Airways flight from Mumbai with 61 passengers and crew had made an emergency landing at Muscat airport yesterday following a tweet about the presence of a bomb on board. The flight was later cleared for onward travel after the message turned out to be hoax.

"Surinder Pratap, who works in a financial company and stays in the outskirts of the city, reached Bagru police station and surrendered. A complaint against him is filed in Mumbai and we have informed the Mumbai police about his surrender and he will be banded over to them tomorrow," Jaipur Additional DCP Karan Sharma told PTI.   

Police said Pratap apparently posted the tweet for some publicity but when he was slammed by twitteratis he deleted it last night and reached the police station today to express regret for his act.

Ludhiana Police Commissioner Pramod Ban earlier said that Pratap has been traced to Jaipur and that the police there was informed.

"We have traced the man. He is currently living in Jaipur and we have accordingly informed the police there today," Ludhiana Police Commissioner Pramod Ban told PTI.

Ludhiana Police succeeded in establishing contact over the phone today with Pratap, who has admitted to having posted the tweet, said Ludhiana Deputy Commissioner of Police, Naveen Singla.

"Pratap hails from Uttar Pradesh. Currently, he is living in Jaipur. Around six months back, he had come to Ludhiana for some work and lived here for a small period of time," he said.
Pratap claims to have "casually" posted the tweet from his account, which was created recently, and by the same name, without knowing its repercussions, Singla said.

"He has been working in Jaipur for some time now and is employed as an HR executive with an MNC," the DCP added.