Kerala man arrested for threatening to blow up Mumbai international airport

Mumbai, November 24

A Kerala resident was arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Friday for allegedly threatening to blow up the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport here if he was not paid “one million US dollars in Bitcoin”, an official said.

The ATS started probe after the Mumbai International Airport Limited, which operates the airport, received a threat email in its feedback inbox at 11.06 am on Thursday, the police official said.

“This is a final warning to your airport. We will blast Terminal 2 in 48 hours unless one million US dollars in Bitcoin is transferred to the address. Another alert will be after 24 Hrs,” the email read.

A First Information Report (FIR) was registered under Indian Penal Code sections 385 (putting a person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion) and 505 (1) (b) (statements made with intent to cause fear or alarm to the public or against the public tranquillity) at the Sahar police station.

The ATS cyber cell, which started a parallel investigation, traced the IP address from which the email had been sent to Kerala, following which a team flew to the southern state and nabbed the accused.

He was being brought to Mumbai and would be handed over to Sahar Police, the official said without disclosing the accused’s identity.