A postgraduate, who allegedly sent SMS to a senior police officer warning of a bomb blast at the Secretariat here on February 24, was arrested near Dindigul on Saturday.
A special team of the Cyber Crime Cell of the Chennai Police apprehended the suspect when he was about to board a bus to evade arrest, sources in the Central Crime Branch said.
Superintendent of Police (Coastal Security Group) A. Chandrasekar received the SMS on his mobile phone from an unknown number on February 4. The message warned of an explosion in the Secretariat on February 24. Since the date also coincides with the birthday of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, police stepped up security on the Secretariat premises and conducted anti-sabotage checks.
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On a complaint lodged by the Superintendent of Police, Deputy Commissioner of Police (CCB) A. Radhika formed a special team of the Cyber Crime Cell to investigate the matter. The number (9944012834) was traced to an address at Vadipatti in Madurai district. Later, the team found that the suspect had activated mobile phone using a fake proof of identity.
“We went in search of a person who did not exist in the address which was used to activate the mobile phone. Investigation revealed that the suspect was moving in the Oddanchathram area (Dindigul district). Based on specific clues, we narrowed down on C. Balamurugan (38) of Chatirapatti village. Enquiries revealed that he was absconding after borrowing money from several people,” Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police M. Sudhakar said.
The suspect confessed to having sent the SMS and said that he did it out of frustration. He got the mobile phone number of Mr. Chandrasekar from a website.
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A postgraduate in commerce, the accused had taken up different business activities since 2008. Dr. Sudhakar said that Balamurugan was an agent selling SIM cards of a telecom service provider. “Since he had several SIM cards at his disposal, he activated one with fake proof of address and used it to send the SMS. The accused was using another SIM card, which was also activated using a fake address proof.”
Balamurugan was produced in a city court and remanded to judicial custody.