Mumbai Police Takes Minor In Remand In Connection With Bomb Threats To Flights

The Mumbai Police, which has launched an investigation into the spree of hoax bomb threats received by airlines, has taken minor in remand in connection to the case.

An adult related to the accused minor is also being questioned as part of the probe, the police officials said in a press briefing on Wednesday.

Notably, 12 flights, including those on international routes, have been affected due to the hoax bomb calls over the past 72 hours.

The threat messages were posted from Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh, the police said. It is suspected that the minor, who is currently in custody, had posted the tweet, they added.

According to the investigators, the information related to the threat messages were first received by the authorities on the morning of Oct. 14. Since then, two more FIRs have been registered, they added.

Separately, the Delhi Police has registered six cases in connection to the bomb threats received by various airlines.

The spree of bomb threats issued to Indian carriers was also discussed in a meeting called by the parliamentary standing committee on transport, NDTV learnt from sources.

During the meeting, Civil Aviation Secretary Vumlunmang Vualnam said that the accused are being identified by the investigators, news agency PTI reported.

Separately, a high-level meeting was also called by Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu to discuss the issue with officials of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

Earlier on Wednesday, an Akasa Air flight en route to Bengaluru was forced to turn back to Delhi following a bomb threat received shortly after takeoff. Similarly, IndiGo's flight 6E 651 from Mumbai to Delhi was diverted to Ahmedabad due to a hoax threat.

This was preceded by a total of seven flights—three international and four domestic—being affected due to the bomb scare on Tuesday.

They included Air India's Delhi-Chicago flight (AI127), Air India Express' Madurai-Singapore flight (IX 684), and IndiGo's Dammam-Lucknow flight (6E-98). Besides them, an Air India Express flight from Bengaluru to Ayodhya (IX765), an Akasa Air plane from Bagdogra to Bengaluru (QP 1373), a SpiceJet flight from Darbhanga to Mumbai (SG116), and Alliance Air flight from Amritsar to Delhi via Dehradun (9I 650) were also affected.

On Monday, three flights affected due to the hoax threats. They include the New York-bound Air India flight (AI119) that was diverted to Delhi after takeoff from Mumbai. Also, two IndiGo flights that were scheduled to depart from Mumbai to Muscat (6E1275) and Jeddah (6E56), respectively, were sent to the isolation bays after the bomb threats were received.