School gets hoax bomb call, cops suspect student

A school in Sunkadakatte in western Bengaluru received a hoax call on Wednesday afternoon, which said a bomb planted on its campus would explode in 45 minutes flat.

According to the police, the principal of the school received a phone call around 2.45 pm, and the caller claimed that a bomb was planted inside the school and would explode at 3.30 pm. The school staff alerted the police and asked a few students who were present on the campus to go out. Teachers and staff also went out of the school.

The police, along with the bomb disposal and dog squads, rushed to the school and searched the premises. No suspicious material was, however, found and the call was declared a hoax. A senior police officer said that no one was allowed to enter the premises until the school was completely checked.

“We traced the call and found that it was made from a coin box telephone near the Sunkadakatte bus stop. The principal said the caller sounded like a young man. It is suspected that some student might have made the hoax call to play a prank on the school. A team of policemen visited the place where the coin box telephone was placed and asked the nearby shopkeepers for information about the person who used the phone in the afternoon,” the senior police officer added.

A case has been registered and investigation is going on.

Driver found stabbed

A tempo traveller driver, who was found lying motionless on the steering wheel with a stab injury on his chest on Tuesday night, died shortly afterwards.

According to the police, the deceased is 29-year-old Naveen Kumar, who drove a tempo traveller attached to a private travel agency.

Passersby saw him slumped over the steering wheel of the tempo traveller parked on the roadside in Marathahalli. When he did not move for a long time, they tried to wake him up.

They climbed aboard the vehicle and found that Kumar had sustained a stab injury in his chest, the police said. He was still breathing and passersby took him to a hospital where he succumbed to the injury, said the police.

The police sent the body for post-mortem and suspect that it could be suicide or murder. “We have contacted his family and are obtaining details about him,” they added.

A case of murder has been registered at the HAL police station and investigation is going on.