Maharashtra: Businessman arrested for making hoax call to Mumbai police

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The Nashik unit of Maharashtra's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has arrested a 47-year-old businessman for making a hoax call to police claiming that three terrorists with Pakistan links had entered Mumbai, an official said on Friday.

The accused, a resident of Ahmednagar, is locked in a property dispute with his relatives and he made the hoax call naming his cousin just to harass him, the official said.

The Mumbai police control room received a call on April 7, with the person on the other side claiming that three terrorists from Dubai with a Pakistan connection had sneaked into Mumbai.

The caller identified himself as one Raja Thonge from Pune and gave the name of one of the "terrorists" as Mujib Mustafa Sayyad. He also provided a mobile number and a vehicle purportedly being used by the trio, said the official.

The mobile number was registered in the name of a man from the Beed district but he had no clue about any terrorists, the official said. Further investigations confirmed that the call was a hoax, he said.

While a first information report (FIR) was registered at Azad Maidan police station in south Mumbai, the Nashik unit of the ATS also launched a probe. With the help of technical analysis and other inputs, the ATS apprehended a certain Yasin Yaqub Sayyad, he said.

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Yasin Sayyad, who runs an 'iron coating' business, told the ATS that he made the hoax call giving it a terror angle because he wanted police to harass his cousin, the official said. He intentionally used his cousin's name as one of the "terrorists", the official said.

The accused said he has a dispute with his relatives over a plot of land.

The ATS handed Yasin Sayyad over to the Azad Maidan police who formally arrested him, the official said. Even if hoax calls are a drain on police machinery, they cannot be ignored, the official said, appealing to citizens to desist from playing such mischiefs.

Mumbai witnessed deadly terror attacks when ten Pakistani terrorists struck on November 26, 2008, killing 166 people and injuring more than 300 in four days, before nine of them were shot dead.

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