Farmer’s Drunken Hoax Call Sparks Bomb Scare at Pune’s Shaniwarwada
Pune, 3rd June 2024: A bomb threat call received by the police control room on Saturday, claiming a bomb was planted at Pune’s historic Shaniwarwada, has been traced to a 42-year-old farmer from Chinchpur in Beed district. The farmer, identified as Ramhari Satpute, admitted to making the call while inebriated.
Satpute was taken in for questioning, where he confessed to being intoxicated when he dialed the toll-free number 100. In his hoax call, he alleged that a woman friend had planted a bag containing a bomb at the 18th-century monument.
In his statement to the police, Satpute revealed that he is addicted to alcohol. On Saturday morning, he purchased two bottles of country-made liquor from a local shop in Ashti. He consumed the liquor at 9 a.m. and then made the call to the police control room at 9:30 a.m., falsely claiming there was a bomb in Shaniwarwada.
After ending the call, the police contacted him for more information on how he came to know about the supposed bomb. At that point, Satpute fabricated a story about a woman friend informing him of the threat.
The Pune city police, taking the hoax seriously, issued Satpute a notice under Section 151 of the CrPC through the Ashti police, which deals with preventive arrests. They also warned him that if he commits similar acts in the future, an FIR would be registered against him.
