A former software engineer was arrested in Karnataka late on Friday, October 7, for making hoax bomb calls to the office of the state Chief Secretary in Bengaluru’s Vidhana Soudha. The man, identified as 41-year-old Prashanth Kumar, was arrested in Hebbagodi after the chief secretary reported that three hoax bomb threts were made to his office earlier that day.
Prashanth Kumar resided with his parents in Bengaluru’s Hebbagodi, and formerly worked in the IT field. "We have filed a complaint against him at the Vidhana Soudha police station and investigation is ongoing," police said. According to police, the accused allegedly called the chief secretary's office from his mobile phone at 2.06 pm on Friday and claimed to have planted bombs. The police quickly used sniffer dogs to explore the area and eventually learned that the call was a hoax. A team was swiftly assembled to look into the situation, and hours later Prashanth was taken into custody at his home.
Earlier in July, over 1500 students were evacuated as preventative measure over hoax bomb threat to National Hill View Public school in Bengaluru's RR Nagar. A bomb disposal team, a sniffer dog team, and jurisdiction police were called and rushed to the spot. The police evacuated over 1,500 students as a preventative measure. The students and staff members were moved safely to another part of the campus. Congress Karnataka chief DK Shivakumar is the chairman of the school.