Hoax calls increase following a blast

NEW DELHI, January 12: Amidst all the panic and confusion that blasts have created in the capital, the Delhi police yesterday received a bom...

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NEW DELHI, January 12: Amidst all the panic and confusion that blasts have created in the capital, the Delhi police yesterday received a bomb hoax call (at 1.15 pm) saying that there would be a blast near the Red Fort. Police squads went on the alert and checked the area in and around Red Fort to find that everything was under control. The police had to call the bomb disposal squad and the operation lasted more than four hours.

“We have started receiving an average of three or four hoax calls everyday,” said DCP North S N Srivastava adding that the call received had been traced.

“The caller (Red Fort hoax) was calling from somewhere in Shalimar Bagh and our teams are making further queries on the matter,” said Srivastava adding, among one of the callers that they could trace in the past was a 14-year-old school boy. The number of hoax calls that we receive increase during the days following a blast. “On an average, we receive four to five bomb hoax calls till a few days following a blast,” said a sub-inspector of a Police Control Van. Shravani , 22, who had suffered severe burn injuries as a result of the January 10 blast opposite Police Headquarters, succumbed to her injuries .