Maharashtra ATS nab suspect from Kerala who threatened to blow up Mumbai airport

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The Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) have nabbed a suspect from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala who had on Thursday allegedly threatened to blow up the Mumbai International Airport, the police said on Friday.

According to the police, on Thursday, the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) had received an email, threatening to blow up the Terminal 2 of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) in Andheri area of Mumbai. The email that was written in English said- "This is final warning to your airport. We will blast the terminal-2 within 48 hrs unless 1 miliion dollars in the bitcoin."

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After the email was received, a senior official from the security department of MIAL reported the matter to the Mumbai Police. The terminal operation department and other security departments of the airport were also informed about the threat email.

Official sources said that the company has created an email address which is for the customers for communications. Many passengers also take information through that email address about their flights and other operations. It is publicly available for customers. Many people also send their complaints to this email address. The email address is operated by the MIAL staff for reverting to the customers on their queries. The sender used the email address for threatening the airport.

The Sahar police had registered an FIR under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 385 (putting a person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion) and 505 (1) (b) (statements made with intent to cause fear or alarm to the public or against the public tranquillity) and started an investigating the case immediately after receiving the complaint.

The police said, following the matter multiple agencies in Mumbai had began investigations and an FIR was also registered by the Sahar Police Station. The Mumbai Crime Branch and the Maharashtra ATS were also probing the matter.

"The Maharashtra ATS formed a special team to investigate the matter and the officials began to trace the origin of the email. They tracked the email to Kerala state and immediately swung into action and deputed a team of officials to Kerala," an official said on Friday.

The police said, the team of officials after reaching Kerala on Thursday traced the sender of the email and detained him for questioning. The suspect was later brought to Mumbai and handed over to the Sahar Police for further investigations that has been probing the matter further.