Youth held for making hoax call to US consulate general office in Chennai

Chennai: Police arrested a 30-year-old man for making a hoax call to US consulate-general office in Chennai, on Friday. The caller was identified as Shaddique Batcha (30) of Mannadi and the Royapettah police traced the man after his wife called the control room apologised for her husband’s mistake.

The hoax call came at around 10 pm on Thursday night and the caller had claimed that he had planted a bomb at the US consulate. The caller also said that the bomb would go off on early Friday. “Following the call, Bomb detection and disposal squad (BDDS) rushed to the consulate with a sniffer dog and combed the premises.

But nothing was found,” the police sources said. After his wife apologised for her husband’s action, she also had brought Batcha to the Royapettah police station. He had made the call under the influence of alcohol. Preliminary inquiries revealed that Batcha had earlier visited Malaysia twice and Bangkok thrice as a transporter. He made the hoax call, reportedly, after irritated by consulate officials making public wait in sun.