RAIPUR: Mumbai police has detained a 17-year-old minor boy from Rajnandgaon in connection with issuing hoax bomb threats on social media which affected operations of as many as three international flights on October 14, said police on Wednesday, October 16.
The teenager father is a businessman in Rajnanndgaon who along with another person are issued notices to join the questioning in connection with the threats issued on Monday. The minor boy was further produced before the Juvenile Justice Board in Mumbai and remanded a four-day custody.
“Police detained a 17-year-old class 11 student from Chhattisgarh who allegedly created a social media account on X under the name of Fazluddin Nirban, a shop owner and used it to send three threatening threats to Indigo and Air India on Monday,” informed a senior official of the Mumbai police.
Preliminary investigation suggests that a financial dispute with the shop owner prompted the minor to create a X account on the latter’s name and post the threats. The minor is not involved in posting the other hoax bomb threats issued on Tuesday, added the official.
Notably, Mumbai police has registered three separate FIRs in connection with the hoax bomb threats issued on Monday and Tuesday. The police after gathering information about the threats issued on Monday shared it with the Rajnandgaon police who further collected the electronic data related to the threatening post.
As many as three international fights, all originating from Mumbai had received the hoax threats on Monday after which, while one of the New York-bound AIR India flight was diverted to New Delhi, the other two bound to Muscat and Jeddah were delayed for several hours.
Significantly, around a dozen flights including both domestic and international originating from India have received hoax bomb threats, prompting the Civil Aviation ministry to call a high level meeting on Wednesday.
Following the detention of the teen from Rajnandgaon by Mumbai Police, the Union Minister of Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu said that “the situation is being monitored closely and we are ensuring that every necessary measures are taken against such actions. All others responsible for the disruption will be identified and duly prosecuted”.
