On Saturday (March 11), the police arrested a 34-year-old man named Santosh Kumar for making hoax calls about the presence of bombs at the railway station and bus stand in Erode town of Tamil Nadu.
As per reports, the accused contacted the police control room in Chennai and threatened bombings at Erode Junction and the bus stand. The district police swung into action and conducted a search operation for over 5 hours on March 11 morning.
The search was facilitated by sniffer dogs, the Bomb Deduction and Disposal Squad and the Railway Protection Force (RPF). While speaking about the matter, Erode Town Inspector R Deivarani said, “We searched those two spots for more than five hours and did not come across any such suspicious objects.”
Reportedly, the police then traced the phone number that made the hoax bomb call, which led them to the accused Santosh Kumar. The cops formed a special team and nabbed him from the Tiruppur district.
It has come to light that he made similar hoax calls in 2019 and 2021. As per reports, Kumar has been unemployed for some time and was struggling to make ends meet. The accused was hoping to be arrested so that he could eat regular meals.
The Erode police registered a case against Kumar under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication).
He was later produced before a magistrate who remanded him to judicial custody for 15 days.
