(Picture used for representational purpose)

MUMBAI: Love, they say, makes you go blind. A 30-year-old man from Mumbai Central was blinded by desperation when Yemeni woman who he was besotted with rejected his marriage proposal and decided to fly back to her land. The suitor, in a last-ditch attempt to “win over his love”, made a crank call to the police, to inform them that the woman was carrying explosives on the flight.

Quttubddin Sahiwala was arrested on Saturday morning. Four hours prior to the arrest, there was frenetic activity at the airport as security agencies swung into action soon after the call came. The flight was to take off at 5.30am.

The police said that Sahiwala befriended the woman on a matrimonial site after which they kept in touch on social media. Sahiwala had told her that he was a “highprofile businessman”, said an officer from Sahar police station.

The woman, whose identity has been concealed, arrived in India recently with her father to attend a relative’s wedding and later met Sahiwala. “She was disappointed to learn that he is a college dropout who runs a hardware store and called off the marriage alliance,” said the officer.

A heartbroken Sahiwala learnt that the woman was to fly back early on Saturday. “He made a hoax call to say that she was carrying explosives, hoping it would stop her from flying out,” said the officer.

At the airport, security agencies were pressed into service. The aircraft was checked even as the police started tracing the caller. The woman and her father were frisked and their luggage rummaged through, but nothing suspicious was found. “Later, she and her father were allowed to fly,” said a police source at the airport.

Meantime, the police managed to trace the call to Sahiwala’s phone. The police said that he has confessed to making the call out of desperation.

The Yemeni woman has now flown back while the lovelorn Sahiwala languishes in police custody.

