Delhi hotel manager held for hoax call

A 22-year-old manager in a Paharganj hotel here has been held on charge of making a hoax call about blowing up Red Fort and a Connaught Place hotel, police said on Sunday.

Police said Mehfuz, a resident of Kishanganj in Bihar, was arrested from the central Delhi hotel where he worked after technical surveillance soon after complainant Nitin Kumar alerted Delhi Police about the threat call.

"Mehfuz made a random call to Nitin around 7 p.m. on Saturday, introduced himself as a Pakistan national calling from across the border and threatened that he had planted bombs at Red Fort and the Connaught Place hotel that will go off around 8.30 p.m.," a senior police officer said.

Nitin reported the threat call to Begumpur police station and gave the caller's number which was later traced to the Paharganj hotel.

After he was caught by police, Mehfuz said he had made the call as a prank, after dialling many randomly chosen mobile phone numbers.

--IANS

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