The Delhi police arrested a 29-year-old man on Saturday for making a bomb threat call to Chennai airport earlier this month. After multiple calls from the caller, a red alert was announced at the Chennai airport on August 9 and security was beefed up.

On August 8, the Control Room of the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) received a call claiming that one passenger, named Zamina alias Rafiya, was carrying a bomb with her and that it would explode on a Dubai or a Saudi Arabia-bound flight from Chennai. Following this threat, security was beefed up at the Chennai airport and the red alert was issued. However, the call turned out to be a hoax and a criminal complaint was registered against the caller in Gurugram.

The accused man was arrested on Saturday from Bawana locality by the Delhi police. Tweeting the details of the arrest, the Delhi Police said that the accused, Nasiruddin, is married to Zamina, whom he claimed to be a ‘Fidayeen’ (Suicide bomber). She was his employee and was planning to leave India and he wanted to stop her from leaving. However, when his attempts to stall her failed, he called the New Delhi control room.

“Accused owns a bag manufacturing factory in Chennai and had married his employee namely Rafiya @ Jabina, who was now planning to leave India to work in the Gulf,” the Delhi police said in a series of tweets. The police added that since his attempts to prevent his wife from going abroad failed, he dialled up Delhi airport control room with a false story that his wife was carrying a bomb so that his wife will not be able to board the plane.

The man’s calls came at a time when security was already high ahead of the Independence day and passengers had to face long queues for security checks at the airport, and thus a red alert was immediately issued. A similar incident of a hoax call was reported at the Chennai airport in May when a call was received at the Chennai Airport Telephone exchange.

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