Mumbai: Man held for hoax call about 'terror attack' at Hotel Taj

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Mumbai Police have arrested a 36-year-old man for allegedly making a hoax call about a 'terror attack' at the iconic Hotel Taj in south Mumbai, an official said on Friday, according to the PTI.

The crime branch began an investigation after the city police's main control room on Thursday received a call about the 'terror attack', the official said.

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The caller identified himself as Mukesh Singh from Ghaziabad and claimed that two Pakistani nationals were about to enter Mumbai via the sea route to blow up Hotel Taj, which was among the targets during the 26/11 attacks.

The crime branch's unit 9 traced the caller to Santacruz in Mumbai and arrested him. The hoax call was to create panic among the people, the official said.

The police identified the caller as Jagdamba Prasad Singh, a resident of Golibar Road in the area.

Singh has been handed over to the Santacruz police and a case has been registered against him under Indian Penal Code section 505 (1) (B), which pertains to intention to cause fear or alarm to the public.

Meanwhile, in an another incident, the bomb detection personnel along with sniffer dogs searched the Maharashtra secretariat in South Mumbai on Thursday after police received a phone call about an explosive being placed in the high-security complex, but it turned out to be a false alarm, an official said, reported the PTI.

A man, who was under the influence of alcohol, was later detained in Ahmednagar in western Maharashtra for allegedly making the bomb threat call, he said, according to the PTI.

A phone call was received on 112 helpline of the Navi Mumbai police in the afternoon about a bomb being placed in Mantralaya or the state secretariat, said the official, as per the PTI.

After the call, Mumbai police personnel along with a bomb detection and disposal squad (BDDS) and sniffer dogs rushed to the state government's administrative headquarters and thoroughly checked the premises, but no suspicious object was found, he said.

During investigations it was found that the call was made from Ahmednagar in Maharashtra.

This was the second incident in the last 15 days when a call about bomb threat at the secretariat was received by the police. The first call had also turned out to be a hoax as nothing suspicious was found.

(with PTI inputs)