MUMBAI: A 53-year-old Pune resident was arrested for allegedly sending a threat email to the state home department office on Monday claiming that a bomb was planted in Mantralaya.
It turned out to be a hoax.
The accused Shailesh Shinde, who runs a hotel in Pune’s Ghorpadi area, told the police that he was upset that his twin sons did not get admission in class X.
TimesViewThis man was obviously disturbed when he made the hoax call and should be sent for counselling.
But the laws are stringent, and the police cannot take such threats, albeit fake, lightly.
They have applied non-bailable sections of the IPC which carry imprisonment of 7 years if convicted.
There should be zero tolerance for hoax calls.The incident comes 22 days after Nagpur resident Sagar Mandhare was booked for a bomb hoax call at Mantralaya.
After receiving the threat email on Monday, Mantralaya officials alerted Marine Drive police.
Teams of bomb detection and disposal squad, dog squad and quick response team commandos searched the premises, but found nothing.
By then, the police traced the internet protocol address of the email to Shinde’s phone and got his Pune address.
Mumbai Police informed their counterparts in Mundhwa who detained Shinde on Monday night.
He was brought to Mumbai and arrested.
Shinde told the police that after his twin sons failed in class IX last year, he filed an application seeking an inquiry into their results.
They were failed by the inquiry team too.
Shinde said he has been trying to get his sons admitted to class X and wrote several emails to the education department complaining about the school, but in vain.
Shinde was booked under IPC sections 506(ii) (criminal intimidation), 501 (1) (b) (whoever makes, publishes or circulates statement, rumour or report which is likely to cause, fear or alarm…whereby any person may be induced to commit an offence against the state or against public tranquility), and 182 (false information, with intent to cause public servant to use his lawful power to the injury of another person).