Gurgaon: Man behind hoax bomb threats arrested, says wanted to have fun

Gurgaon: A 29-year-old man was arrested Thursday for making bomb threat calls for two consecutive days to police control rooms in Gurgaon and Delhi, police said. The man told police he wanted to have some fun.

Sunny Sharma, who hails from Shiv Vihar area near Karala in northwest Delhi, worked as a salesman at a dry fruits outlet at the Vyapar Kendra in posh Sushant Lok area of Gurgaon. He was living in a rented accommodation in Jharsa village near Sector 32.

Sharma, who is married and a father of two children, "wanted to check police alertness and did all this for fun", Gurgaon Commissioner of Police Navdeep Singh Virk told media persons Thursday.

He was tracked down to Gurgaon's Sushant Lok area and arrested Thursday afternoon.

Sharma had kept Gurgaon police on their toes for the second consecutive day Thursday with a call about a high intensity bomb planted at a shopping complex. The threat turned out to be a hoax.

The Arcadia shopping complex in South City area was evacuated after police received the call.

Hundreds of policemen, bomb disposal and sniffer dog teams along with fire fighters took part in the search operation. After a five-hour search, police said the call was a hoax.

Police had Wednesday received a similar call about a bomb being planted at the HUDA City Centre Metro station and a market in Gurgaon which too were found to be hoaxes.

Both the calls were made from the same number.

Police said the mobile number used to make the bomb threat call was issued in Odisha in the name of Saroj Kumar Malik. The phone was lost Dec 16 at the Vyapar Kendra.

Sharma, a school passout, Wednesday made the call to the Gurgaon police control room and Thursday to the Delhi police control room.

He said he visited his house in Delhi to make the call and see the police reaction.

"Gurgaon police was informed by Delhi Police about the bomb threat. The caller used the same mobile number he used for a threat call Wednesday," a police officer told IANS.

The caller's location was found to be in the National Capital Region (NCR), he said.

Metro services were Wednesday affected for over two-and-a-half hours after a bomb threat at the HUDA City Centre station.

The station was emptied after police received a call from a man who said a bomb was planted in the station's basement.

A bomb threat call also forced police to clear out people from the Vyapar Kendra and Galleria Market in New Gurgaon.

Police commandos tried to find the bombs as claimed in the threats. The three-hour search operation by over 400 policemen revealed that the bomb scare was a hoax.

The man said in the 20-second phone call: "I have planted a high intensity bomb in a car parked in the basement of the HUDA City Centre station. I have also done so in two markets of New Gurgaon. 'Bacha sako to bacha lo' (Save if you can)."