A hoax call informing that a bomb was planted in the Technopolis building in Salt Lake, triggered panic on Wednesday. Apart from launching a massive search operation to locate the bomb, the North 24 Parganas police also arrested a youth from Dankuni from whose phone the call was made.
Though prima facie the youth’s family is trying to prove that he is mentally unfit, the police is suspicious about their claims. It is suspected that the youth had made the prank call after he was refused a job in a company in the Technopolis building.
At 8.20 am, a call came to the security outpost of the main gate of the Technopolis building alerting them that a bomb planted on the third floor of the multi-storeyed building. Soonafter, the panic button was pressed and the 1,500 employees of all the 38 companies located in the building were evacuated. Bomb Disposal Squads and sniffer dog were pressed into action. A thorough search from the parking lot to the top floor was made.
In the meantime, the district police traced the number of the caller to that of Somnath Dhol, 23. He was arrested from his Dankuni residence. “It appears that he is his mentally unfit. But we need more time to interrogate him. We have sought for a medical expert”s help,” said SP North 24 Parganas Rahul Srivastava.
Meanwhile, when the search operation was on, an altercation broke out between some media persons and some private security guards of the building. Sanjay Kumar Gupta of G-4 security agency was arrested for beating the media persons.