Hyderabad: Hyderabad police on Thursday arrested a youth for sending a hoax mail to the Mumbai Police Commissioner about terrorists planning to hijack planes which led to authorities declaring high alert at three airports.
Police said Motaparthi Vamshi Krishna had sent the mail on April 15 in the name of his girlfriend.
The email sent to Mumbai Police stated she heard six unidentified youth discuss hijacking three flights in Hyderabad, Mumbai and Chennai on Sunday.
Mumbai Police then forwarded the mail to Mumbai Airport Security Group which went on high alert.
The Mumbai police on Saturday night received an email, sent by Krishna impersonating as a Hyderabad-based woman.
The Task Force unit of Hyderabad police arrested Vamshi Krishna, a 32-year-old transport agent, for sending the mail.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Task Force) Limba Reddy said the mail was sent from a cybercafe in Madhura Nagar.
During interrogation, the accused revealed that he used to chat with his girlfriend who stays in Chennai. A few days ago, she proposed a trip to Mumbai and Goa.
As Krishna was facing financial problems, he requested her to drop the idea but she insisted.
“Seeking to scuttle the trip, he hatched a plan to make her believe that flights have been cancelled because of high alert at airports,” police said.
He had earlier created a fake flight ticket of April 16 from Chennai to Mumbai and mailed the same to her.
Police booked Vamshi Krishna for cheating, impersonation, giving false information under relevant sections of Information Technology Act.
The woman claimed to have overheard six men telling each other that “all 23 people have to split from here and board flights in three cities and hijack planes”.
“The unidentified woman wrote in the email that what she heard could be ‘true or not’ but she chose to inform the authorities as she felt it was her duty to do so as a citizen,” a senior officer earlier said.
The contents of the email were shared by Mumbai Police with security and intelligence agencies and a meeting of all the stakeholders at these airports was subsequently convened with the input being declared specific and actionable, he said.
