A man from Ghaziabad was arrested after he allegedly made a hoax call to the control room claiming a bomb was planted in a Kanwar special train, sending the security agencies into a frenzy in the early hours of Monday, Government Railway Police (GRP) officials said.
After the phone call around 2am, security personnel including the bomb disposal and dog squads, pressed into action and searched the train that culminated at the special mela platform at the Haridwar railway station, and ambulances and fire engines were kept on standby. However, it eventually turned out to be a hoax call, the officials said.
The accused, identified as Rinku Verma (25), made the phone call to 112 helpline number over a seat in the train and wanted to teach fellow commuters a lesson, said senior superintendent of police (GRP) Dadanpal Singh.
“Though the Kanwar special train coming from Delhi is immediately occupied by passengers for the reverse journey, we isolated the train and the special mela platform where it culminated until the search was complete. We found nothing, but nabbed a passenger in a drunken state who made the hoax bomb call. His fellow passengers confirmed that he had entered into a fight with some passengers over a seat and made the call. We immediately took them into custody,” he said.
The accused told the police that he was coming to Haridwar for a trip but engaged in a fight over a seat on the train. To teach them a lesson, he made the hoax call, the police stated.