Man held for making hoax bomb call to B’luru mosque

Bengaluru: Karnataka police have arrested the man who made a hoax bomb call to a mosque in communally sensitive Shivajinagar locality in Bengaluru, police said on Monday.

The accused has been identified as 37-year-old Syed Mohammad Anwar from Maharashtra.

According to police, the accused was raising donations for madrassas from the mosques.

After collecting the donation from the Azam mosque near Russell Market in Shivajinagar locality of Bengaluru, he had sought permission to stay back the night which was denied.

An upset Anwar then boarded the bus to Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh. Upon crossing Devanahalli, he had made a phone call to the emergency helpline number 122 stating that terrorists had planted a bomb in the mosque.

The incident had taken place late at night on July 5.

It had created panic and tension among the local residents and police. The search operation was carried out late in the night. 

Officials of fire force and emergency services, police department, bomb disposal squad and dog squad had rushed to the spot and conducted search operations which turned out to be a hoax call. 

Shivajinagar police, which registered the case in this regard, nabbed the accused when he had gone to Mehboobnagar from Kurnool.

Investigations have revealed that the accused was a BSc graduate but was unemployed.

He used to earn his livelihood in the pretext of collecting donations for madrassas.

Further investigation is on.