Kerala student says he made bomb threat to Mumbai airport to crash airline stocks

A 23-year-old student from Kerala who was arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad for allegedly sending a mail threatening to blast the Mumbai airport is a professional share market trader who wanted to become a crorepati in just a few hours.

In one month of investigation, the Sahar cyber police found that the accused Febin Shahjahan wanted to pull down share prices of the airline industry by floating negative news that there would be a bomb blast at the Mumbai airport in 48 hours. However, sources from big traders told mid-day that hoax calls never affect the share market.

The accused Febin Shahjahan is a Bachelor of Business Administration student and resident of Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. He told the police that he had lost lakhs of rupees in the share market and so had demanded 1 million bitcoin from the Mumbai International Airport Authority via e-mail. However, the police ascertained that in reality, Shahjahan wanted to become a crorepati within a few hours of trading.

Crorepati within hours plan

Shahjahan has been trading for the last 2-3 years but never earned any good profits in the share market. In November he viewed several videos on Instagram, related to the stock market. In one such video, Shahjahan noticed that if any negative news of a listed company appears on Google then people will start selling shares and the share price of the company will also fall.

The cyber department of the Sahar police seized Shahjahan's cell phone and found many such videos in his search history. A police source told mid-day, "We also found he had arranged for lakhs of rupees from his relatives and friends for trading after circulating news of the bomb blast threats. He demanded 1 billion bitcoin in the mail and threatened to blast Mumbai International Airport. He sent this mail from his cell phone using a fake email ID he had created."

According to the police, Shahjahan thought that his threat email would make airline companies stop operating flights and this would badly impact the airline industry. "This is a final warning to your airport. We will blast T-2 airport within 48 hours unless 1 billion bitcoin is transferred to the given address," read the e-mail that was sent to the Mumbai international airport authority around 11.06 am on November 23. The police said that before sending the e-mail, Shahjahan deleted his profile from social media platforms.

However, by night, Shahjahan was traced to his house and arrested by the Maharashtra ATS from Kerala. The Maharashtra ATS interrogated him but didn't find any terrorist activity behind the threat e-mail and handed over him to the Sahar police for further investigation.

The police suspect that after sending the e-mail Shahjahan purchased airline company shares and waited to gain profits. A police officer said, "We have informed SEBI to check Shahjahan's trading account. He is mentally fit and committed the crime only to execute his plan to become a crorepati in just a few hours. He was released on bail after we found that he wasn't involved in any terrorist activity." The police are waiting for the SEBI report to check whether Shahjahan gained any profit on the particular day.

Meanwhile, the owner of a well-known trading firm told mid-day that such kinds of hoax calls and emails never impact the share market. "Shahjahan doesn't have any knowledge of the share market and also didn't have any capital to invest. People should not believe in such rumours and continue with genuine trading."

Nov 23
Day airport received the threat

1M
Amount in bitcoin demanded by accused