2 detained from Gujarat in case of bomb threat call to Mumbai hotel

Valsad, August 24

The Mumbai Police on Wednesday detained two men from Gujarat’s Valsad district for allegedly threatening to blow up The Lalit, a five-star hotel in the Maharashtra capital, an official said.

After the threat call on Monday, the hotel located in Mumbai’s Andheri area was checked. Its staffers had later approached the Sahar police to register an FIR against the then unidentified caller.

Multiple teams were formed to nab the caller, a Mumbai police official earlier said.

The Special Operations Group of Valsad police helped the Mumbai Police in catching the two culprits, Valsad SOG sub-inspector LG Rathod said.

Both of them were nabbed from Vapi town in Valsad at around 3 am on Wednesday, he said.

They have been identified as Vikram Singh and his friend Yeshu Singh, both natives of Bihar and currently living in Vapi, the official said.

“Both of them are 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. Yeshu then searched online using his SIM card and called the landline number of The Lalit in Mumbai,” he said.

They first spoke to the receptionist and told her they will blow up the hotel. Later, they spoke to the manager and demanded Rs five crore from the management to save the hotel, the official said.

“The duo had asked the 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.

The police took the two men to Mumbai for further legal process as the FIR has been registered at the Sahar police station there, he added.