Panjim, July 24: A hoax caller was arrested after a joint action by the Maharashtra and the Goa police. The police departments of both states were put on high alert after the Mumbai Police Control Room received a call at 1 am on Sunday, July 23 alerting them about a white tanker filled with RDX that was moving on the National Highway that runs from Mumbai to Goa. The caller also claimed that there were two Pakistani nationals onboard that tanker.
The Mumbai Police was quick to alert the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and the Goa Police Control Room after they received the call from an unidentified caller.
Omvir Singh Bishnoi the Goa Inspector General of Police (IGP) – an Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre 2004 batch officer who has been honoured with the President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Services in 2020 apart from other prestigious medals for meritorious service – told the media “Maharashtra and the Goa Police after deploying their intelligence network in both the states, verified the location from where the call was made and also checked the numbers of suspected vehicles through the VAHAN portal. By evening, the caller was traced and arrested.”
The call – before it was known to be a hoax – was treated with sincere alarm and action as it was a matter of security. The Goa Police set up “Naka Bandi” or stop-and-check posts on all the borders of the state and intercepted all vehicles entering the state.
Within seven hours, the Ratnagiri (Maharashtra) police personnel intercepted the said tanker and found it laden with raw material for the manufacture of polythene bags.
“We intercepted the tanker near Wandri village in Sangameshwar taluka, Ratnagiri. The driver possessed all the required documents. Though we found polythene bag-making raw material, we will send the raw material for forensic examination. Our probe is on,” Dhananjay Kulkarni, superintendent of police, Ratnagiri district reportedly told The Times of India.
Mumbai crime branch detained a 42-year-old man from Kanjur Marg (Mumbai) named Nilesh Pandey who had provided the said tanker’s registration number to the police.
“He told police the tanker had hit his bike near Fountain Hotel on Ghodbunder Road. He said he followed the tanker for some time and clicked a photo on his cellphone on Friday night,” said an officer.
The police say that this man has been a repeat offender and has several cases of assault, criminal intimidation, and theft to his name. He was also externed once.
Within the span of a week, this was the third such hoax call. Earlier on July 13, an unidentified person called Mumbai Traffic Police Control Room and threatened the police to prepare for a 26/11-like (Mumbai Terror Attack) terrorist attack if Pakistani national Seema Haider does not return to Pakistan. Another call by a mentally unstable man in suburban Ghatkopar warned about a bomb planted in the city.
Accoding to media reports that this was the 25th hoax call in the city this year and eight people had been arrested in the earlier two dozen cases.
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