A 19-year-old youth from Haryana has been arrested by the cyber cell of Mumbai crime branch for allegedly posting a hoax tweet that a series of bomb blasts was going to take place in the city.
The police said the arrested youth, identified as Banwari Singh, had tweeted from a Twitter handle ‘Commando Singh’, in which he said explosions would take place in seven multiplexes showing actor Richa Chadha-starrer film ‘Madam Chief Minister’.
According to the police, Singh had tweeted on January 22 on the day of the film’s release that blasts would take place at seven multiplexes in Malad, Vasai and Andheri areas.
“In the tweet, Singh had also tagged Mumbai police and the Mumbai police commissioner. He also mentioned ‘Madam Chief Minister Movie End’ in his tweet,” said an officer.
The Mumbai police swung into action and carried out checks at multiplexes in the western suburbs but after the search, the police declared that it was a hoax tweet.
A case was registered and the cyber unit was roped in to trace the culprit.
The police said the accused deleted the tweet after it was found by security agencies.
“Singh deleted the Twitter handle as well. So only with the help of the screenshots that were shared with us, we managed to locate him in Haryana,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber) Rashmi Karandikar, adding that extensive technical investigation was done to trace him.
The police said the mobile phone from which Singh had tweeted has also been seized.
Singh, who has been booked under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act for giving false information to the police and misusing electronic gadget or computer resources for committing a criminal offence, was produced in court on Friday. He was remanded in police custody.
