Hoax call to blow up Red Fort sends police into tizzy, 1 held

The Delhi Police was thrown into a tizzy when it was alerted by a man about a threat call about blowing up the Red Fort.

The call later turned out to be a hoax, officials said.

The matter was reported to the Begumpur police station around 7.30 pm yesterday. Later, the accused, who had made the call "just for fun", was nabbed, the police said.

Nitin Kumar, who informed the police about the call, recalled the almost three-hour long ordeal that he went through yesterday.

"I was in my digital marketing class when I got a call around 7 pm from a man, claiming to be from Pakistan.
 

"He said that there will be a bomb blast at the Red Fort around 8.30 pm. He also claimed that there is a bomb planted in a hotel in Connaught Place," Kumar told PTI.

It was a Delhi number from which the call was made, he said, adding that he alerted the police soon after.

Kumar said that Police Control Room vans rushed to his residence in Rohini within no time, making his mother worried.

Kumar said he was called to the Prashant Vihar police station since he was closer to it, and the caller was traced to a hotel in Paharganj.

Personnel from the Paharganj police station visited the hotel and arrested a 22-year-old man, identified as Mehfuz.

Mehfuz is a resident of Kishanganj in Bihar and was working as a manager in the hotel for the last couple of years.

He told the police that he had made the call just for "fun" and had randomly dialled a couple of numbers.

The others did not take his call, and it was only Kumar who responded, the police said.