Man trying to reunite friend with girlfriend makes hoax bomb call, gets arrested

NEW DELHI: In a love fling that went horribly wrong, a 24-year-old British Airways’ ticketing agent who was trying to play wingman for his friends was arrested by Delhi police after he made a hoax bomb threat call to SpiceJet’s Pune bound flight so that the flight could be delayed or cancelled and hence give more time to his friends to spend with their love they found in Manali.
The accused Abhinav Prakash, resident of Delhi’s Dwarka during the interrogation told the Delhi Police that he was trying to “help” his friends Rakesh alias Bunty and Kunal Sherawat who wanted to spend some more time with their new found lovers.
The two friends–Rakesh and Kunal met these two girls on a holiday trip to Manali earlier this year and had fallen in love. As both these girls were scheduled to depart to their hometown in Pune Rakesh and Kunal approached Abhinav for help so that they could spend more time with the girls in Delhi.
According to DCP Delhi Airport, Ravi Kumar Singh, “The two co-accused (Rakesh and Kunal) recently went on a road trip to Manali and became friends with two girls in Manali. Both the girls were departing today to Pune from Delhi. His (Abhinav’s) friends told him that they wanted to spend some more time with their girlfriends and instigated the accused to find out a plan to somehow delay their departure from Delhi. In pursuance of the instigation, all three formulated a malicious plan of making a hoax bomb call thinking that it would cancel their flights.”
The incident happened on 12 January this year when the SpiceJet airlines ticket reservation call centre received a call from Abhinav who informed the airlines that “there was a bomb in flight SG 8938” at around 8:45 pm.
The two girls were travelling from Delhi to Pune on the Spicejet flight SG 8938 which was bound to depart at 9:30 pm. But post the call, the security officials immediately swung into action and the flight had to be delayed for several hours.
“Abhinav and his friends contacted the girls who were onboard and when they came to know that the flight had been delayed or stopped, they even celebrated the execution of their malevolent act.” DCP Singh said.
According to SpiceJet officials, as per protocol the information received at the call centre was passed on to the CISF command and control centre at Delhi airport and IGI police station for thorough security check. A SpiceJet spokesperson speaking to The Sunday Guardian said, “The airline followed the laid down procedures, we informed all the stakeholders and the CISF and the Delhi police immediately swung into action and since the information was specific a coordination meeting of all stakeholders was organised and taken to isolation bay. The airline staff who received the call even tried to contact the number from which we had received the call, but despite repeated attempts no one answered the call.”
“The aircraft was carrying 182 passengers and crew onboard but after the threat call the aircraft was immediately taken to the isolation bay and was parked at isolation bay No. 803. All the passengers and their luggage were properly checked and frisked by CISF. Further, the aircraft was also thoroughly checked and no suspicious item or article was found. After securing the flight and ensuring the safety of all the passengers the aircraft was allowed to fly,” the SpiceJet spokesperson said.
However, after SpiceJet registered an official complaint with the Delhi Police an FIR was registered at the IGI police station. The police have successfully tracked the accused through his contact number he used to make that call and he was arrested from his residence in Dwarka. Abhinav has been slapped with charges of false information, wrongful restraint, offence in assembly that causes alarm to public and criminal intimidation. While Abhinav has been arrested, his two friends are still absconding and police have issued notices to track them down soon.