MUMBAI: A man who is suspected to have made 79 hoax calls to police across India in the span of five months was held by the Mumbai Crime Branch near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) early on Sunday.
Rukhsar Ahmed, the accused, is a resident of Malwani. Police will verify whether he suffers from a mental health condition.
In his latest calls made to the Mumbai Police Control Room on Saturday, Rukhsar said "bada boss" (big boss) has kept 100 kg of explosives at one location in Mumbai and will blow up the city. In another call, he claimed that "Ambani" owed him dues.
"Calls of this nature were being repeatedly made to the Control Room. Every threat is taken seriously and resources are deployed to verify the authenticity of the caller as well as to search the location mentioned," said a senior police officer.
The latest call was tracked down to Malwani. The Malwani police then registered an FIR and sent out a team to the caller's residence. But he was not at home.
As the caller had mentioned sensitive information, the Mumbai Crime Branch also started to probe.
Officials of units 8, 9 and 10 of the crime branch started to track the caller's mobile number. Meanwhile, the accused kept moving and reached the area near the CSMI Airport early on Sunday.
A team from unit 10 of the crime branch led by senior inspector Deepak Sawant, under the supervision of DCP Raj Tilak Roshan, swiftly moved in and nabbed the accused. His custody was later handed over to the Malwani police as the FIR had been registered by them. Police sources said that in 2018 Ahmed had been booked by the Delhi Police in a similar case of making a hoax call.
