Hoax bomb threat to Bengaluru airport, ex-staffer arrested

Bengaluru Police tracked down the caller to a Paying Guest (PG) accommodation at Wilson Garden

A bomb threat to Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) created panic at the airport in Bengaluru in the morning on May 20. Within hours, police not only checked the airport premises and declared the call a hoax, but also arrested the caller.

The police control room (112) received a call from a male, who identified himself as Deepak and claimed to have planted a time bomb to go off at 3.50 a.m. on Friday May 20.

The police and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) posted at KIA were alerted. Dog squads and Bomb Detection and Disposal Squads searched the entire premises of the airport for abandoned bags or cargo. By 7 a.m., agencies declared the airport as safe and declared the call a hoax.

Meanwhile, Bengaluru Police tracked down the caller to a Paying Guest (PG) accommodation at Wilson Garden and arrested him. He has been identified as Shubhashish Gupta, who had earlier worked at KIA.

“The sister of the accused is going through a divorce. Shubhashish made the threat call in the name of his brother-in-law Deepak in an attempt to get him in trouble,” a senior police officer said. However, Shubhashish had called the police control room from his own phone, which helped the police track him down, the officer added.