The Mumbai police on Wednesday arrested two persons from Vapi in Gujarat’s Valsad district for allegedly threatening to blow up a five-star hotel in the Maharashtra capital, an official said.
A person had called the reception of ‘The Lalit’ luxury hotel, located in Mumbai suburb of Andheri, and threatened to blow up the property using bombs if its management did not pay him Rs. five crore, the official said.
After the threat call on Monday, the hotel was checked and its staffers later approached the Sahar police in Mumbai who registered an FIR (first information report) against the then-unidentified caller. Multiple teams were formed to nab the caller, a Mumbai police official earlier said.
According to the Sahar police station official, the arrested accused were identified as Vikram Singh and Ishu Singh, residents of Valsad and Vapi, respectively.
Vikram Singh made the threat call from his mobile phone using a SIM card provided by Yeshu Singh, he said, adding the police have recovered the mobile phone.
Probe revealed Vikram Singh earlier worked as a spot boy in the Hindi film industry and was once deployed at the hotel for some work, the official said.
During his stint at the hotel, he saw the property inside out and later decided to make an extortion call to the establishment, he said.
Vikram Singh got the hotel’s phone number after an online search and made the threat call on Monday evening, said the official.
During the call, Vikram Singh had claimed bombs had been planted at four locations in the hotel and if its management paid him ₹ 5 crore, he will defused them, the official said.
Following a complaint from hotel staffers, an FIR was registered under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including 385 (putting person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion) and 507 (criminal Intimidation by an anonymous communication), against the then-unidentified caller. After the arrest of the duo, IPC section 120B (criminal conspiracy) will be added in the FIR, he said.
The officer from the Sahar police station said both the accused belong to poor families and committed the act to earn quick money.
“We traced them after tracking their mobile number locations. The two are being brought to Mumbai, where they will be produced before a court for remand,” he added.
The Special Operations Group of the Valsad police helped the Mumbai cops in nabbing the duo, Valsad SOG sub-inspector L G Rathod said earlier in the day.
Both of them were nabbed from Vapi town, he said.
“Both of them are originally from Bihar and were doing odd jobs in Vapi. To make quick money, they came up with the idea of threatening a hotel by claiming that they will blow it using a bomb,” Rathod said.
“The duo had asked the hotel manager to come to Surat with the money. After getting a complaint from the hotel, a Mumbai Police team came to Vapi and detained both the accused with our help,” Rathod said.
