A man who was allegedly behind a series of recent hoax bomb threats to airports and railway stations was arrested on Friday after he surrendered before the Nagpur Police, PTI reported.
Jagdish Shriam Uikey arrived in Nagpur by flight and surrendered on Thursday evening, the news agency reported. This came after the police sent him a notice seeking his presence for the investigation.
The 35-year-old, who resides in Delhi, is a resident of Arjuni Morgaon in Maharashtra’s Gondia district.
More than 300 domestic and international flights operated by Indian carriers received hoax bomb threats in two weeks leading up to October 26, PTI reported. Most of the threats had been issued through social media.
Security measures were also increased at railway stations after Uikey allegedly sent a threat email to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and railway police authorities on October 21.
The investigators tracked him based on the emails he had sent to several establishments, the news agency reported.
In 2021, Uikey was arrested after he made a phone call allegedly making a hoax bomb threat.
Amid the spate of bomb threats, the Union government on October 26 told the social media platforms to remove or block access to misinformation, failing which they would no longer be shielded from criminal action.
A day later, Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu had said that the Centre is looking at steps to ban those who have issued hoax bomb threats to airlines from flying.
On October 16, Naidu said that the Mumbai Police had arrested a minor for making three of the hoax bomb threats.
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