Wife forces hoax bomb caller to surrender

At 9.53 pm on Thursday, the police control room received a call warning them that a bomb has been planted at the US consulate exactly at 3.16 am on Friday. The call came from a  mobile phone. 

Following this, Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad of the City Police rushed to the consulate office with the sniffer dog, and  conducted a detailed check at the premises which lasted from 10.45 pm to 11.50 pm. 

However, no explosive was found during the sweep. Realising that they were sent scampering by a prankster, police began investigations and traced the mobile number. By then, however, the control room received another call, this time from a woman to admit that it was her husband, Sadique Batcha or Mannadi, who made the call while in an inebriated condition.

She apologised to the police personnel. After the police team probing the case called the number and began inquiring about the Batcha, the woman brought him to Royapettah police station and produced him before the police officers. 

Preliminary inquiries revealed that Batcha had earlier worked as a kuruvi, a courier who brought back goods from Malaysia and Thailand without paying tax, said police. His last job was as a staff at a footwear shop in T Nagar, but he stopped going to work for the past three months, officers added.  

Batcha was remanded in judicial custody after being produced before a magistrate court.