india

Updated: Mar 05, 2019 19:13 IST

The Goa Police on Tuesday arrested a 23-year old Mumbai resident for allegedly making a hoax call that a bomb was planted at an upmarket hotel in the popular tourist destination of Calangute.

According to the Calangute police, the woman identified as Rangoli Patel, a resident of Malad West, called the police control room at around 01:15 am on March 5 informing that a bomb was kept in a popular restaurant at Calangute beach with the sole intention of extracting revenge on the hotel after the woman had an argument with the waiter.

The call triggered a terror alert leading to the evacuation of the hotel in the dead of the night.

“The quick reaction team of the Anti Terrorist Squad also was called at the spot. The services of the Bomb Disposal Squad and the Dog Squad were obtained and a sabotage check was carried out and finally it was confirmed that there was no any bomb placed,” police Inspector of Calangute Police station, Jivba Dalvi, said.

The police then obtained the subscriber details of the caller and she was traced to a nearby hotel staying with her friend. Police said during interrogations she disclosed that she had made a hoax call to make the restaurant management suffer losses by shutting it down as she and her friend had an argument with a waiter.

Police said she has been booked under section 182 (filing false information before a public servant with the intent for him to use his power to the injury of another person), 505(1) (b) (public mischief) & 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and arrested. The mobile phone from which she allegedly made the call has been taken into custody by the police. She could not be contacted to get her version.

The Goa Police, like other security agencies across the country are in high alert following the flare-up between India and Pakistan over the terrorist attack at Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir.