Three airlines receive hoax bomb threats in Mumbai; FIR registered

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The Mumbai Police registered a case against an unidentified person after three airlines received bomb threats on their X handle, an official said on Tuesday, reported the PTI.

Indigo Airlines, Air India and Vistara received threats on Monday, and they turned out to be a hoax after verification, the official from Sahar police station said.

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With this, the city police have registered 14 FIRs this month in connection with bomb threats to airlines, the officials said.

An X user identifying himself as "I want to slit your throat" sent the threats from the an X handle.

'Hi, there are bombs onboard of the MENTIONED planes. Many lives will be lost today," read one of the social media post, containing flight numbers.

An official from IndiGo airlines approached the police and lodged an FIR under relevant sections of the Aircraft Act and Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS).

This is the 14th FIR related to bomb threats registered with the Sahar police station between October 14 and 28. The police solved one out of the 14 cases, with the arrest of a 17-year-old student from Chhattisgarh, as per the PTI.

On Tuesday, Air India, Vistara and IndiGo were among over 100 flights to get threats as the Indian airlines continued to receive bomb threats, official sources said.

In a span of 16 days, over 510 domestic and international flights have got the threats in a wave of bomb threats to Indian airlines, mostly through social media platforms, that later turned out to be hoaxes.

According to sources, Air India received threats for around 36 flights, Vistara received 35 threats and IndiGo airlines received threats to its 32 flights.

Different Indian airlines on October 28 also received bomb threats, following which security was ramped up at multiple airports.

Sources said that around 60 Indian airlines on Monday received bomb threats. These included-- IndiGo 21, Air India 20 and Vistara 20.

Meanwhile, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) has been roped in to investigate the series of bomb threats received by Indian airlines in the past 15 days. In the past 15 days, Indian airlines have received as many as 463 bomb threats, causing major disruptions to schedules of many flights.

On Monday, 61 fresh bomb threats were received.

The threats, directed at multiple carriers, have caused widespread concern and heightened security measures across the nation's airports. Amid a rise in hoax bomb threats received by airlines, Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu said in a media address that the government is taking steps to ban perpetrators who resort to hoax bomb threats from flying.

"We will take the support of international agencies, law enforcement wings, and IB," he said.

(with PTI inputs)