The city crime branch on Thursday arrested the caller, a real estate agent, who had made a hoax phone call to the police control room claiming that a bomb had been placed in the Income Tax department office.
On July 26, the city police control room received a phone call at around 2.30 pm, in which a caller claimed that he had placed a bomb in the Ballard Pier-based IT office Scindia House, which also houses the office of the Debt Recovery Tribunal.
During probe, the police learnt that the Tribunal at Scindia House looks after the auction of those flats or properties that are seized by the banks or other financial organisations. “Accused Alok Dinesh Tanna (29) had applied in the Tribunal for a Borivali-based flat which was seized by a bank and was meant for auction. On July 26, the Tribunal was supposed to pass an order regarding the said flat in favour of another party, which had also applied for the same flat and was more eligible. So, in order to stop the work in the Tribunal office and delay the decision order, Tanna made a hoax call to police,” said a crime branch official.
Since the caller’s phone call location was traced to the Kandivali area, unit-11 launched a parallel probe and on Thursday API Chimaji Adhav, Manohar Harpude and constable Ashok Konde arrested Tanna from Raghuleela Mall at Charkop, Kandivali, following a tip-off. Tanna will be produced in court on Friday.
The police had swung into action and the entire building was vacated. Local police, BDDS policemen and ATS officials, after carrying out an hour-long search operation, found nothing suspicious in the building and termed the call as a hoax.