3 including a woman booked for ‘RDX’ bomb threat message to cops

Hameed Ashraf | NT

Bengaluru: Amid concer ns looming over the unsolved mystery of bomb threat mails sent to the schools recently, Anekal Police were startled when they received another hoax bomb threat through WhatsApp.

However the officials sprung into action and booked three people including a woman involved in the matter.

The police on Tuesday clarified that this case has no connection with the mails sent to the schools. Speaking to News Trail, Bengaluru Rural District Superintendent of Police, Mallikarjuna Baladandi, said that this was a domestic dispute which spiralled into a chilling bomb threat.

"An FIR was registered and we have booked three persons under Cheating, Forgery and Information Technology Act 2008 sections," he said.

A senior official from Anekal Police Station revealed that a WhatsApp message was received on Sunday which stated that there would be a series of RDX blasts in the area.

Shocked, the of ficials tracked the contact number and found that it belonged to a local resident, Kiran Mallappa Aragi, of Maruti Layout. When questioned, Kiran denied any knowledge about sending such a message, the official said.

However an intensified interrogation unravelled the truth behind the orchestrated threat. It was revealed that Kiran's wife, Vidyarani, 32, was behind this.

The official explained that Vidyarani had been chatting with at least two male friends identified as Ram Prasad and Ajith, whom she met on a dating app.

When Kiran found out about this, he rebuked her and smashed her phone in rage. Later Vidyarani used another phone to inform Ram Prasad and Ajith regarding this.

In order to teach Kiran a lesson, Ajith sent a message to Vidyarani and asked her to forward it to several numbers belonging to officers from the jurisdictional police station and a central investigation agency, using her husband's mobile phone.

Taking the incident as a grave security concern, the police interrogated the couple during which Vidyarani confessed to have sent the threat message to the police and later deleted it from Kiran's mobile phone.

Further investigation in the matter is underway, the official added.