Angered By Pune Airport Closure, IT Engineer Makes Bomb Hoax Call; Flight Delayed For Over 3 Hours

Mubarak Ansari & Sumit Singh

Viman Nagar, 8th October 2021: An IT engineer has been arrested by Pune city police for allegedly making a hoax call about a bomb in an aircraft today.

Police said that he was angry about the Pune airport closure for 14 days as his wife’s return was hampered as it falls within the closure period.

Senior Police Inspector Bharat Jadhav, in-charge of Vimantal police station, the 28-year-old accused of Baner is an engineer working at an IT company in Pune. He had gone to the Pune airport around 8.30 am to drop off his wife, who was going to Ranchi by Air Asia’s Pune-Ranchi flight that departs from the airport at 8.50 am.

Inspector Jadhav said that the accused’s wife had booked a ticket of the same airline for the return journey on October 16. He asked the airline staff at the counter to reschedule her flight on October 15 and it led to some argument. After some time, he started saying that there was a bomb on the aircraft.

Pune Airport Director Santosh Dhoke said that security agencies were informed who thoroughly checked many aircraft as he was not giving specific details. He was saying that the flight which has landed recently had the explosives and then said that some other flights might have it.

The Air Asia aircraft flight departed at 12 pm, after over three hours delay. Police said that the accused seems to be mentally disturbed and further investigation is going on.