Published Dec 12, 2023 | 12:56 PM ⚊ Updated Dec 12, 2023 | 12:56 PM
Hoax call for bomb threat. (iStock)
Just over a week after a hoax call about bombs in city schools, a phone call claiming that a bomb was planted inside the Raj Bhavan premises in Bengaluru and could go off anytime threw the city police into a tizzy on the night of Monday, 11 December.
The police scrambled all over the Governor’s official residence and finally concluded that it was a hoax call.
A case has been registered at Vidhan Soudha Police Station in Bengaluru. Police are now tracking the number from which the threat call was made.
According to Raj Bhavan sources, the call was made from Bidar, the northern district of Karnataka at the Maharashtra border.
“Investigations revealed that the call was made from Bidar. After the call, the phone was switched off. Police are trying to trace the caller,” a Raj Bhavan official told PTI on Tuesday.
He also said the Governor is currently in Belagavi.
Bengaluru Deputy Commissioner of Police (West division) Shekhar H Tekkannavar said the NIA control room received an anonymous call at midnight following which the Bengaluru police was alerted.
“After the intense search, nothing was found. We are investigating the matter. So far no one has been arrested,” he said.
The hoax bomb threat comes 10 days after 48 schools in Bengaluru received bomb threats via email.
On 1 December, after combing the premises of the schools, the police declared it to be a hoax.
However, the threat spread panic as parents rushed to the schools to take their wards home.
Initially, 15 schools — most of them international schools — received the threat in the morning, and the remaining schools continued getting the threat email even till 1 pm, the police said.
On receiving the threat, the schools evacuated the students and staff to safe areas within the campuses, even as the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad and Anti-Sabotage teams of the Karnataka police combed the schools.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said he has asked police to seriously investigate the e-mail and its source, and provide adequate security to schools and temples as a precautionary measure.
(With PTI inputs)
