Bomb Scare To Flights: Chhattisgarh Minor Detained For Hoax Threats Targeting Mumbai Flights

Mumbai: A minor boy from Chhattisgarh has been detained by Sahar police for allegedly issuing hoax bomb threats against three flights departing from Mumbai to Muscat, Jeddah, and New York. The threats claimed that the flights contained bombs, terrorists, and six kilograms of RDX.

The threats were made on ‘X’ (formerly known as Twitter) on Monday between 1:32 AM and 3:09 AM from two handles, @fazluddin69 and @fazluddinn27077, which belonged to Fazluddin Nirban, according to his profile. The flights affected were IndiGo flights 6E1275 from Mumbai to Muscat, 6E57 from Mumbai to Jeddah, and Air India flight AI119 from Mumbai to New York. Due to the seriousness of the threats and in accordance with standard operating procedures, the flights were diverted. IndiGo promptly approached Sahar police and filed an FIR against unknown individuals in response to the posts.

During the investigation, police located Nirban, 34, in Chhattisgarh, as his name was listed on the profile. However, the address associated with the posts pointed to another individual, a 17-year-old minor from Chhattisgarh. Both were detained and brought to Mumbai for interrogation. On Wednesday, Sahar police confirmed that it was the minor who had made the hoax threat posts, using Nirban’s photo and name.

Both Nirban and the minor resided in Rajnandgaon district, Chhattisgarh, and knew each other. Following an altercation between them, the minor sought revenge against Nirban, which led him to concoct the entire hoax call situation, according to police.

The minor's father, Mangilal Agarwal, was also called to the Sahar police station, where he confessed to knowing Nirban. On Wednesday, police stated that the minor was presented in Juvenile Court, which remanded him to Dongri Juvenile Home for four days.