Mumbai: Ambani hoaxer has been ill since 1993 bomb blasts

Vishnu Bhushan Bhumik, the 57-year-old man who made threat calls to Reliance Foundation Hospital on Monday, has been suffering from mental illness since his shop at Zaveri Bazaar was damaged in the 1993 bombings, according to his wife. Police said he has made similar threat calls in the past, in two different police jurisdictions.

The Dahisar police arrested Bhumik and handed him over to the D B Marg police, where the hospital had filed the complaint.

Bhumik lives at Veda apartments on Holy Cross Road in Dahisar West.

Also read: Threat calls to Mukesh Ambani: Suspect detained from Dahisar by Mumbai Police

Vishnu Bhumik is escorted in a police van, on Monday

Talking exclusively to mid-day, Bhumik's wife said, "His mental condition is not good, and the reason is the 1993 terror attack on Zaveri Bazaar in which our jewellery shop was damaged. We suffered massive damage and lost crores of rupees. He is undergoing treatment in Bengaluru."

Sources said that Bhumik blamed the police for the attack; he said if the police were alert, they could have averted the attack and he would not have suffered.

"In the initial days of his illness, he would call on random numbers and abuse people. In 2015 and 2016, he even faced police action, following which we took away his mobile phone. We gave him a phone again just two months ago," the wife added.

Sources in his family and friends told mid-day that the doctors at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital had saved his life four years back, when he was admitted with gallbladder stones. His condition was very critical, but the doctors saved him, they added.

This reporter visited his society and spoke to the neighbours, and learnt that Bhumik is a kind person, who gives food and water to the poor and hungry. He could not tolerate any wrongdoing, and would abuse anyone caught doing something wrong, they said, adding that the society members did not mind as they knew about his mental state.

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No. of threat calls he made to Reliance Hospital