Mumbai, March 29 (IANS) In a case of a fake bomb scare, a 58-year-old passenger was arrested at the Mumbai airport for allegedly creating chaos with a hoax bomb alert, police said.

According to officials, the accused, Shanti Kothari, was arrested after immigration officials at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport stopped him from boarding a Mumbai-Delhi flight. The accused allegedly screamed that a bomb was planted in a Mumbai-Ghaziabad flight and created chaos on the premises.

Sahar Police have registered an FIR against the accused under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 125,351(2), 353(1)(b), and police are investigating his background for further details.

According to the FIR, Kothari, a resident of Sakinaka, allegedly made alarming and threatening remarks while boarding the flight, causing panic among passengers and airport staff. The matter was immediately reported to the airport security authorities, including CISF personnel and other concerned departments.

Officials said that the accused was present near the airport's boarding gate and allegedly began shouting and making provocative statements. During boarding, he allegedly shouted, "Don't go on the Ghaziabad flight, there's a bomb in it."

In his statement, the complainant, a member of the airline staff, said that as part of his duty, he was making routine announcements and assisting passengers during the boarding process for the Mumbai to Delhi flight at Gate No. 51 when the incident occurred.

Bomb threats and suspicious emails received by various institutions across the country have occasionally prompted evacuations.

Recently, the Gujarat Legislative Assembly was placed on high alert after an anonymous email threatened to detonate bombs at the complex and other key locations across the state. The Assembly session, which was underway at the time, was suspended, and all MLAs, ministers, and staff were safely evacuated.

Apart from this, several courts across Gujarat -- including the Gujarat High Court in Ahmedabad and district courts in Rajkot, Vadodara, Valsad, Gandhinagar and Mehsana -- received bomb threat emails.

These messages prompted evacuations and thorough searches by police, bomb detection and disposal squads and dog units, but no explosives or suspicious materials were found, and the threats were later declared hoaxes

Notably, schools in Delhi have repeatedly received bomb threats that have later turned out to be hoaxes.

--IANS

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