Terror tool

Alipurduar, Feb. 27: Hoax calls made by three teenagers upset a Sealdah-bound train’s schedule in north Bengal last night.

The Class XI students of McWilliam High School here made the calls from a cellphone while returning home from private tuition last evening.

They took advantage of an offer of unlimited free calls by the service provider. Yesterday was the last day of the offer.

The boys had made 22 calls at random in one hour.

If they threatened one man with a blast in his backyard, they frightened another saying they were about to loot his house.

One of the calls went to south Calcutta MLA Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay’s personal assistant. The callers identified themselves as extremists from Jharkhand.

They told him that the Sealdah-bound Kanchankanya Express would meet with an accident before reaching Malda Town as fishplates on the tracks had been removed, the police said.

Chattopadhyay’s aide immediately contacted the Calcutta police control room in Lalbazar and the call was traced.

The train was stopped at New Jalpaiguri station for 20 minutes from 8pm and again detained for 15 minutes before reaching Malda at 12.30am. The tracks were checked but nothing was found.

Jalpaiguri police picked up the boys and their guardians for questioning last night.

All the three had secured over 700 in their Madhyamik examination, said headmaster Sudhangshu Biswas.

Alipurduar inspector-in-charge Sitanath Das said: “We grilled the boys for three hours. They had committed the nuisance unintentionally. We have cautioned them against doing this in the future.”

The callers were allowed to go home “because they were young”.

Biswas said he would no longer allow students to carry phones on the campus. “We’ll also convene a meeting soon to request guardians not to allow children to use cellphones.”