A team of Delhi police has apprehended a 25-year-old man for allegedly making a hoax bomb threat call on a SpiceJet flight flying from Darbhanga in Bihar to the national capital, an official said today.

The accused, Jay Krishan Kumar Mehta, a resident of Bihar’s Supaul district, made the call on Jan 24 - two days before the Republic Day, to delay the flight’s departure as he reported late, and was denied boarding by the airline at Darbhanga airport, said the official.

According to the police, on Jan 24, the IGI airport police station were informed at around 6.15 p.m. from CISF Control Room that they had received a call from security manager of SpiceJet airlines stating that a person named “Kishore” called up their call centre in Gurugram and stated that he overheard a conversation between two boys talking about a bomb on a Delhi-bound SpiceJet flight.

Deputy commissioner of police (DCP), IGI Airport, Usha Rangnani, said that based on the information received and considering the gravity and sensitivity of the call, the Delhi Airport was put on high alert and a “full emergency” was declared at the airport.

“The flight landed safely at Delhi airport after which the aircraft was moved to an isolated bay for security search. The said call created panic among the passengers in the flight, however, all the passengers were deplaned safely and the aircraft went through a thorough search by the security agencies,” said the DCP.

However, after thorough search, the bomb threat call was found to be a hoax.

“After proper verification, the said call was transferred to Udyog Vihar police station, Gurugram and a case was registered,” said the DCP.

Hoax caller nabbed by police

During the probe, the details of the hoax caller’s number was obtained from SpiceJet airlines and technical surveillance was made but not enough clues were found about the caller.

“The team further checked records of all the passengers who booked the flight from Darbhanga to Delhi and after checking the records, it was revealed that one passenger namely Jay Kumar missed the flight at Darbhanga Airport as he did not show on time,” said the DCP.

Based on suspicion, technical surveillance was mounted over him and manual intelligence was collected as he was regularly changing his locations.

“He was nabbed from Noida and on grilling, he confessed to the offence. He further disclosed that he had made the hoax call intentionally to delay the flight as he was late at the departure counter at the Darbhanga Airport,” said the DCP.

(Source: IANS)

- Edited for style

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