A security scare was triggered at the Cochin International Airport Limited on Sunday following an anonymous phone call warning of a bomb blast at the airport. It eventually turned out to be a hoax with the police tracing the caller and arresting him a couple of hours later.
The call, received at the CIAL office around 6 a.m., claimed that a person would be landing at the airport with a bomb in his baggage. “Based on the message, a meeting of the bomb threat assessment committee was held and a decision to deploy the bomb detection and disposal squad and quick response teams in and around the airport was taken,” said A.C.K. Nair, Airport Director. The passenger and cargo surveillance system was intensified while the staff entering the operational areas were kept under a close watch.
The staff had been asked to report to the terminal manager on finding any unattended baggage on the airport premises.
Meanwhile, the police traced the location of the caller and arrested him from a house near Piravom. The accused has been identified as Raju Abraham, a resident of Kolencherry in Ernakulam. “The caller had given a phone number, which he claimed to be of the person carrying the bomb. The number was traced to the father of a Munsiff Court judge in Aluva and eventually we closed in on Raju, a UD clerk in the Kolencherry Munsiff Court ,” the police said.
Preliminary investigations revealed that Raju had been suffering from mental instability and he wanted to avenge his transfer from a court in Aluva to Kolencherry. The accused has been booked under IPC section 507 for criminal intimidation.
