A couple residing in Bengaluru were on their way to Kochi on Thursday night to get engaged, but ended up being detained at the Kempegowda International Airport.
The couple feared that they would miss their Kochi-bound flight on Wednesday evening and allegedly planned and organised a fake bomb call to the airport authorities, resulting in the aircraft’s delay by almost seven hours.
Arjun and Neha Gopinath, resident of Bengaluru’s BTM Layout, were later released by the International Airport Police after they pleaded with the officers, stating that they were to get engaged.
“We let them go after they signed an undertaking that they would come back in a couple of days. The couple had asked their friend to call the terminal manager and tell him that a bomb had been planted in the Kochi-bound flight they were slated to board,” International Airport Police Inspector said.
Arjun and Neha were to board the Air Asia flight I51129 to Kochi at 8.45pm on Wednesday night from Bengaluru. They were to get engaged at Alappuzha on Thursday. They got stuck in traffic at 8pm and knew they could not make it on time to the airport. Hence, they planned to execute the fake bomb alert, the Inspector added.
The couple’s friend placed an anonymous call to the terminal manager of the airport between 8.35 and 8.40 pm, saying a bomb had been planted on the Kochi-bound aircraft.
The International Airport police were immediately informed and they rushed to the flight with a bomb squad. The aircraft was searched thoroughly until it was declared safe at around 1.00 am on Thursday and the flight took off at 3.am. However, the friend who called the airport is absconding.
“While the bomb squad was sweeping the flight in search of the bomb, we were simultaneously trying to trace the location of the anonymous call. It was sourced to Alappuzha in Kochi and was in a locality where one of the passengers is from. This passenger had also made a call a few minutes before, and had told the terminal manager that they were stuck in traffic and had pleaded with the manager to delay the flight,” the Inspector said.
The police then detained the couple and requested that the flight’s departure be delayed.
According to a TOI report, the Alappuzha police said that the call was made from a public phone in Thazhakkara, Mavelikkara in Alappuzha district.