Bomb threat to airport: 2 men held

Police identified them as Deepu Anand (29), from Koppampatti village in Thuraiyur, Tiruchy, and K Sakthi Saravanan (28), staff at a tech major in Sholinganallur. Now working as a librarian in his native Thuraiyur, Deepu contacted Saravanan to seek his help to obtain a job suited to his educational qualification. Saravanan agreed to help but sought Rs 25,000. Believing him, Deepu handed over the money a few weeks ago. 

After receiving no updates, Deepu reached Chennai, and on Sunday night, met Saravanan at a friend’s house for drinks which led to a quarrel. Deepu suddenly snatched Saravanan’s phone and called the police control room to inform that the latter was planning to trigger a blast at Chennai airport. Saravanan grabbed the phone back and said it was Deepu who was planning the explosion and cut the line. This happened around 8.54 pm.  The officers at the control room realised the callers were drunk and decided to track them using the mobile phone location. “Only after our team reached there did they realise the gravity of the issue,” police said. 

Both were taken to Pallikaranai police station at night and were arrested on Monday under the IPC sections including 153 (A) (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language,) and 506 ii (criminal intimidation).