Tirupati: The security forces of railways and local police carried out searches at railway stations across Puttur, Tirupati and Chittoor on Tuesday morning after an unidentified caller told the police control room that someone had placed a bomb at these railway stations and it could explode in a few hours.
However, after rigorous search operations at these stations and on tracing the caller, who was found to be mentally unsound, the call turned out to be a hoax.
According to Puttur urban CI Yellam Raju, upon receiving the call, the police officers in the control room immediately alerted respective stations and senior officials, who in turn alerted the Government Railway Police (GRP) and Railway Protection Force (RPF).
Bomb squads and dog squads were pressed into action at the stations in Tirupati and Chittoor, while the Road Opening Party (ROP) teams were sent to Puttur Station to carry out searches.
They carried out checks and after almost two hours found the call to be a hoax.
“We traced the number from which the call was made and tracked the location of the number. It was a fake call made by J. Lokesh (34), a native of Thoruru village in Puttur mandal. He works as a data entry operator at a private bank. We learnt from his relatives that he was mentally unsound and was disturbed for a while, as his marriage was cancelled recently,” Yellam Raju said.
Meanwhile, the police have registered a case and taken the fake caller into custody. He was later released on bail, assured by his relatives and further investigations are on. However, railway services were not affected due to this incident.
