Visakhapatnam: The number of hoax bomb calls to trains, schools, temples, district court complex and industries in the city has been increasing, causing endless trouble to the police. Though the calls proved to be hoax, the cops cannot take any call lightly. However, the cops have not been able to nab of the hoax callers so far. A phone call about a bomb being planted in the Sri Sampath Vinayaka temple at Asilmetta threw the police into a tizzy on October 21. No explosives were recovered after a search. A priest had received a phone call from an anonymous number about the bomb.
A senior police officer of the bomb detection and disposal squad said that on average they received five to eight phone calls in a month from schools, colleges and railways, industries and few others regarding calls that they received about a bomb in their premises.
So far, the police has not found explosive material in any incident. “Though the calls have been causing tension to us we can’t take such calls lightly as if the culprits could be telling the truth which could result is loss of life,” he added. Inspector of Cyber Crime Investigation Cell K.S. Rao, who is investigating the hoax calls, said police had found it difficult to nab the culprits who use coin box phones or from SIM cards obtained with fake ID proof.
A senior police officer said that sometimes drunkards do this just for fun while in some cases there are few criminals who resort to such hoax calls to divert the attention of cops for their criminal motive.
