Man makes hoax bomb call to delay SpiceJet flight, gets arrested

New Delhi: A Noida-based BPO employee was arrested for allegedly making a hoax bomb call in an attempt to delay his flight from Dharbhanga in Bihar to Delhi as he was running late, police said on Saturday.

By the time Jay Krishna Kumar Mehta, a native of Supaul in Bihar, made the call, the SpiceJet flight had already departed for Delhi, they said.

Once it landed at the IGI airport here, the passengers were deplaned and it was taken to an isolated bay for a thorough search and no bomb was found, an official said.

The case against him was registered in Gurugram's Udyog Vihar police station as he had made the call to the airline's call centre from that area. The Delhi Police had also registered a separate case as the IGI airport falls under its jurisdiction.

After being nabbed, he was handed over to the Gurugram Police and placed under arrest for offences under Indian Penal Code sections 506 (criminal intimidation) and 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication), police said.

The call was made to the SpiceJet's Gurugram-based call centre and the caller had identified himself as Kishore, the official said.

During the call, he stated that he had overheard two men talking about a bomb in SpiceJet flight number SG-8496 flying from Darbhanga to Delhi on January 24, according to the official.

The official said that 'after the call, the Delhi airport was put on high alert as the flight had already departed from Darbhanga'.

Following the thorough search of the aircraft, the bomb threat call was found to be a hoax, the official said.

"With the help of technical surveillance, Mehta was nabbed from Noida in Uttar Pradesh," the official said and added that he was later placed under arrest by the Gurugram Police.

During interrogation, Mehta said he had graduated from the Magadh University in Bihar and was currently working with a BPO company, police said.

He said he had made the call to delay the flight as he was late at the departure counter at the Darbhanga airport, the official said.