Boy told cops there would be blasts in Delhi

Seven-year-old hoax caller creates panic

Boy told cops there would be blasts in Delhi

The Delhi police's control room receives several crank calls daily, some of them about blasts and terrorist attacks. All these calls, however, have to be taken seriously as the cops cannot leave anything to chance. But July 13 turned out to be a slightly unusual day for the men in khaki.

Delhi police received a PCR call about imminent blasts in the Capital. Immediately security was tightened in the city, barricades were put up in sensitive areas, frisking of people began. After long hours of search and investigations the cops found nothing suspicious.

Then the Indraprastha (IP) estate police station began tracing the mobile number that was used to make the call. The address was found to be that of a bookbinding shop in Mukherjee Nagar area of north Delhi. The cops found the owner of the number Amit Tiwari, an employee of the store. The cops detained Amit and started investigations.

"Amit confessed that the number belonged to him but denied making the call. He said that on the day the call was made he had left his mobile at home. Then we interrogated his father Vijay Tiwari and his mother Chandrasan Devi but they too had no ideas about the incident," said a police officer.

The cops began to suspect that either Amit's mobile had been cloned or the family was lying. Then 7-year-old boy Sonu (name changed), Amit's younger brother, stood up and claimed responsibility for the situation.

"We were shocked when we saw the culprit. Amit had left his cell phone at home and his younger brother took the handset and started playing with it. Unintentionally he pressed '1' on the mobile and an emergency call was connected to the PCR. When the police official on the other side asked him about the problem he made up this story about blasts in Delhi. We can't register a case as the culprit is a child," said a police official.

The whole drama ended with the kid's confession, and the cops went back to work with wry smiles on their faces.