Hoax calls a headache

A spate of hoax calls in the last nine days has become a headache for Bangalore police and a source of concern for software firms, the garden city-turned Silicon Valley's proud landmarks.

And there seems no end to it. Friday was the turn of two Kendriya Vidyalayas in the city "" at Sanjaynagar and Jeevanbheemanagar "" which were the target of anonymous callers. As in previous cases, they turned out to be hoax.

It all began with a hoax call to a city office of Wipro on March 9. Within hours after making the call, a 30-year-old Wipro employee, Prashant Kumar, was in the net.

Barely a week later, on March 15, another call to a police control room in the early hours, claiming that bombs have been planted in the main offices of Wipro and Infosys sparked another round of panic. Work was disrupted at these two software companies but no explosive devices were found following a search.