Trainee ticketing agent of British Airways arrested for making a hoax bomb call to Spicejet

With the arrest of a trainee ticketing agent of British Airways, the team of IGI Airport succeeded in arresting the originator of the hoax bomb call within a few hours and was successful in working out a case registered at IGI Airport police station, in the Capital.

On January 12, 2023 information was received at the Spicejet call center regarding a bomb in flight No. SG-8938, bound to depart from Delhi to Pune at 09.30 PM. The information was immediately escalated to the CISF control room and transferred to IGI Airport Police Station.

Keeping in view the gravity of the call the security agencies at CISF immediately swung into action and a coordination meeting of all stakeholders was organized as the bomb threat was specific. The Spicejet Airline SG-8938 which was bound to take off to Pune, having 182 passengers and crew members was immediately taken to the isolation bay and was parked at isolation bay No. 803.

The aircraft was adequately checked

All the passengers & their luggage were adequately checked and frisked by CISF. Further, the aircraft was also thoroughly checked and no suspicious item/article was found. After securing the flight and ensuring the safety of all the passengers, the team of IGI examined the officials of Spicejet Airlines, and Mr. Varun Kumar, Manager Security, Spicejet Ltd, lodged his official complaint with the IGI Airport police station, and an investigation was carried out immediately.

The arrest of the accused

To identify the originator of the hoax call and to arrest the caller, a dedicated team consisting of Inspr. Virender Pakhre, SI Prema Ram, ASI Suresh, and HC Vinod under the leadership of SHO/IGIA Inspr. Yashpal Singh and overall supervision of ACP/IGI Sh. Virender Mor was constituted.

The technical surveillance team obtained ownership of the mobile number 9899384504 (no. from which the hoax call originated) and the same was found in the name of Abhinav Prakash S/o Dr. Suryanath Singh, Aged 24 years R/o Sector 22 Dwarka, New Delhi. Within no time a raid was conducted at the given address and the accused was apprehended and subsequently arrested in the case.

Interrogation revealed the entire story

On being subjected to sustained custodial interrogation the accused disclosed that his childhood friends namely Rakesh alias Bunty and Kunal Sehrawat who recently went on a road trip to Manali, came in contact with two girls in Manali. Both the girls were departing today to Pune via flight No. SG-8938 of Spicejet Airlines. The friends requested the caller saying that they wanted to spend some more time with their girlfriends. They also instigated the accused to find a plan to delay the flight’s departure from Delhi.

All three formulated a malicious plan

In pursuance of the instigation, all three formulated a plan of making a hoax bomb call at the call center of Spicejet Airlines, with an ulterior motive of getting the flight canceled. The accused immediately called Spicejet Airline’s customer care phone number from his mobile phone and passed on the message that “there is a bomb in flight No. SG-8938”.

Following this when the Spicejet officials tried to reach him he stopped picking up their calls. The accused to boost their false bravado contacted the girls who were onboard and when they came to know that the flight has been delayed/stopped, they even celebrated the execution of their malevolent act.

When the news of the arrest of Abhinav Prakash reached Kunal Sehrawat and Rakesh alias Bunty they fled away from their addresses and are presently absconding, efforts are being made to trace the remaining accused for arresting them.

Profile of the Arrested Agent

Accused Abhinav Prakash holding a diploma in Tour and travels from IGNOU, is working as a trainee with British Airways in DLF Qutub Plaza Gurgaon for the last 07 months. His malignant plan of making a hoax bomb call caused inconvenience to the passengers and kept all the security agencies on high alert until the disposal of the call.