Delhi-Pune Spicejet flight hoax bomb call: The bomb threat on Pune bound Delhi SpiceJet flight was declared a hoax by the airlines on Friday (January 13). The SpiceJet spokesperson said that the flight had not taken off when the call was received and the aircraft was moved to the isolation bay.
A trainee ticketing agent of British Airways was arrested today in the related matter.
Hoax bomb call received on Jan 12:
On Thursday, a call was received at the SpiceJet reservation office about a bomb in the aircraft scheduled to operate flight SG 8938 (Delhi-Pune). At that time, boarding of passengers for the flight had not started, an airline spokesperson said in a statement on Friday.
Following the call, the aircraft was moved to an isolation bay and was thoroughly inspected by security officials. "Nothing suspicious was found. The call was later declared as hoax," the spokesperson said.
"On January 12, a call was received at the SpiceJet reservation office of a bomb in the aircraft scheduled to operate flight SG 8938 (Delhi-Pune). The boarding for the flight had not yet started. The aircraft was moved to an isolation bay," the spokesperson said adding that on thorough inspection, the security officials did not find anything suspicious there."Security officials thoroughly inspected it and did not find anything suspicious. The call was later declared as hoax," the spokesperson added.
Arrest and Interrogation process:
To identify the originator of the hoax bomb call and to arrest him, a dedicated team consisting of Inspector Virender Pakhre, SI Prema Ram, ASI Suresh, and HC Vinod under the leadership of SHO/IGIA Inspector Yashpal Singh and overall supervision of ACP/IGI Virender Mor was constituted. The technical surveillance team obtained ownership of the mobile number 9899384504 (number from which the hoax call originated) and the same was found in the name of Abhinav Prakash S/o Dr Suryanath Singh, Aged 24 years R/o Sector 22 Dwarka, New Delhi. Immediately a raid was conducted at the given address and the accused was apprehended and subsequently arrested in the present case.
On being subjected to sustained custodial interrogation the accused disclosed that his childhood friends namely Rakesh alias Bunty and Kunal Sehrawat who recently went on a road trip to Manali, became friends with two girls in Manali. Both the girls were departing today to Pune via flight No. SG-8938 of Spicejet Airlines. His friends told him that they wanted to spend some more time with their girlfriends and instigated the accused to find out a plan to somehow delay their departure from Delhi. In pursuance of the instigation, all three formulated a malicious plan of making a hoax bomb call at the call center of Spicejet Airlines, with an ulterior motive of getting the flight canceled. The accused immediately called Spicejet Airline customer care phone number from his mobile phone and passed on the message that “there is a bomb in flight No. SG-8938”.
Thereafter when the Spicejet officials tried to reach him he stopped picking up their calls. The accused person to boost their false bravado contacted the girls who were onboard and when they came to know that the flight has been delayed/stopped, they even celebrated the execution of their malevolent act. When the news of the arrest of Abhinav Prakash reached Kunal Sehrawat and Rakesh they fled away from their addresses and are presently absconding, efforts are being made to trace the remaining accused person and arrest them.
Know more about arrested employee of British Airways:
Accused Abhinav Prakash S/o Suryanath Singh R/o Sector 22 Dwarka New Delhi, Aged 24 years, completed his high school and Intermediate from the National Institute of Open School (NIOS) in 2018 and 2020 respectively. After that, he obtained a diploma in Tour and travels from IGNOU in 2020. At present, he is working as a trainee with British Airways in DLF Qutub Plaza Gurgaon for the last 7 months. His previous antecedents are being verified.
The above-said accused just to gratify his malignant plan, made a hoax bomb call which caused inconvenience to the passengers and kept all the security agencies on high alert until the disposal of the call. Delhi Police is committed to taking stringent legal action against these kinds of unsocial elements so that these kinds of acts can be prevented in the future and no unnecessary inconvenience is caused to the passengers.
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