Chennai: An elderly citizen dealt the issue of costly ticket prices in metro rail in a rather unconventional manner. He issued a bomb threat to the Arumbakkam metro rail station. Police said Kalyana Sundaram (61) was told that there were no tickets for Rs 5, following which he indulged in the brazen act. On Friday morning, around 7 30 am, Kalyana Sundaram walked into the Arumbakkam station and asked for a ticket to airport, handing out Rs 5. The ticketing staff told the sexagenarian that there were no tickets for ' 5 and demanded more money after which the man created a furore, refusing to make way for the other passengers standing in the queue.
The man, finally relented, only to make a call to the control room a few minutes later to issue a bomb threat. Choolimedu police rushed to the station, with the Bomb Disposal and Defusal Squad (BDDS) and sniffer dogs in tow. Panicked passengers rushed out of the station, police said.
After sweeping the premises and declaring the call a hoax, police traced the call and found it to have come from SBI colony in Arumbakkam. Metro rail staff too informed the cops about the threat from an elderly citizen and handed over CCTV footage after which a police team descended on his residence and picked him up. Police said that the senior citizen was mentally unstable and he was admitted to the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) in Ayanavaram. The caller is a casual labourer, police said.
