Mumbai: Panic gripped the Mumbai Police force on Thursday evening after the control room received a call from an unidentified person claiming that a bomb would be detonated inside a suburban local train — the city’s lifeline. Within hours, the Azad Maidan police special team traced and arrested the caller, identified as Suraj Dharma Jadhav (32), from Kalina, Santacruz.

According to police officials, Jadhav, who is addicted to alcohol, has a past record of making similar hoax bomb threat calls to the police.

About The Case

On Thursday, after consuming liquor, he allegedly phoned the police control room and declared that he would trigger a blast in a suburban train before abruptly disconnecting the call. When police dialed back, the number was found switched off.

With Independence Day around the corner, senior police officials took the threat very seriously and directed the local police, Railway Police, and the Crime Branch to conduct immediate checks. Security was tightened across railway stations, with increased deployment, baggage checks, and inspection of suspicious individuals. However, no suspicious object was found.

Investigators traced the call to Kalina and picked up Jadhav for questioning. During interrogation, he confessed to making the hoax bomb threat. Police revealed that he had earlier been arrested for a similar offense and was out on bail. Despite having been bound down previously under preventive action by the Assistant Commissioner of Police’s office, Jadhav repeated the offense. Authorities have now warned that stricter action will be taken if he violates the bond conditions again.

Meanwhile, the Railway Police Force (RPF) and local police continued heightened vigilance at key stations following the threat.

Mumbai: A special POCSO court in Dindoshi sentenced a 50-year-old Malad businessman, who owns an imitation jewellery factory, to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for repeatedly sexually assaulting a minor girl from April 2021 to February 2023 on the promise of marriage.

Observation Made By The Court

The Dindoshi court, while convicting the businessman, held that, “it is indigestible that a married man who at the relevant time, which is, from 2021 to 2023, was the father of four children, still enticed the victim expressing his desire to marry with her. This itself goes to show that the accused not only had a culpable mental state of mind but also the accused committed the offence of rape, not on one occasion but repeatedly.”

The court noted that the accused exploited the victim’s minority and her family’s status as his tenants, with her mother working in his factory. “The victim was influenced by the accused to marry her once she attained majority. The innocence of the victim reflects from her understanding that she had no idea about the consequences that the accused is quite older than her, he is already married and has four children,” the court added, noting the victim’s lack of maturity and understanding of reality.

In a separate case, a Thane sessions court sentenced a 35-year-old man to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment, with a Rs 10,000 fine, for raping his 10-year-old stepdaughter in April 2019, along with a one-year sentence under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act and a Rs 1,000 fine.

Aizawl: Two persons were arrested with Rs 68 lakh in cash near the India-Myanmar border in east Mizoram’s Champhai district, officials said on Thursday.

Acting on a tip-off, the Assam Rifles intercepted a vehicle at Zote village on August 11, they said.

Upon thorough checking, Rs 60 lakh in cash was recovered from two persons in the vehicle.

The duo, identified as Joseph Lalthansanga and Vanlalruati, could not state any proper reason why they were carrying such a huge amount of cash. They were subsequently handed over to the police for legal action, officials said.

In another operation, the Assam Rifles recovered 94.6 gram of heroin, worth Rs 78 lakh, from the village on Wednesday.

The drugs were handed over to the Excise and Narcotics Department, officials said.