A trainee ticketing agent of British Airways was arrested on Friday for making a hoax bomb call to a SpiceJet call centre yesterday. The man, identified as Abhinav Prakash, had made the hoax call on Thursday, in order to stall its departure.
According to the police, the accused made the call because his friends wanted him to delay the flight as two girls whom they had met and befriended during a Manali road trip were travelling on it.
The accused had made the call on Thursday, claiming that the airline’s Pune-bound SpiceJet flight from Delhi had a bomb on it. The CISF and Delhi Police checked at Delhi’s IGI Airport but found nothing suspicious.
“The aircraft was moved to an isolation bay. It was thoroughly inspected by security officials. Nothing suspicious was found. The call was later declared a hoax,” a Spicejet spokesperson said.
The Delhi Police constituted a special team to trace the caller and the accused was apprehended within 24 hours of the call being made. The Delhi-Pune SpiceJet was scheduled to depart from the IGI Airport at 6.30 pm, but received a call shortly before the take-off, airline officials said.
According to the police, the accused revealed during interrogation following his arrest that he had made the hoax call to stall the departure of the plane at the insistence of two of his friends.
“Accused disclosed that his friends Rakesh and Kunal went on a road trip to Manali and became friends with two girls. Both girls were departing to Pune via the SpiceJet flight. His friends told him to find out a plan to somehow delay their departure from Delhi,” said Ravi Kumar Singh, DCP, IGI Airport.
“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 cancelled,” the police said, adding that Kunal and Rakesh are absconding.