A bomb disposal squad personnel inspects the bag at Dukhan Ram Plaza in Patna on Sunday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Feb. 5: An abandoned bag on the third floor of Dukhan Ram Plaza on Exhibition Road today triggered a bomb scare, leaving police officers on their toes for around three hours.

The Gandhi Maidan police received information about the bag with a tag “Don’t touch” around 10.30am. The cops rushed to the spot. They summoned dog and bomb squads.

Around 1.30pm, the specialised teams arrived and found nothing dangerous inside it. The bag, lying on the third-floor of the building, contained a few prescriptions and some medicines.

Sources said the police remained a mute spectator for around three hours, as there was no claimant of the bag. Since the members of the dog and the bomb disposal squads allegedly reached the spot around three hours after being informed, a large number of onlookers assembled there. Some of them made wild guess on what was there inside the bag.

The sources attributed the late arrival of the dog squad on Dukhan Ram Plaza to a VIP function at National Institute of Technology.

“Had it not been a Sunday (as normally offices and shops remain closed on Sunday), the scene would have been different in the complex housing offices of different organisations,” said a resident of the area.

“This building remains busy on working days. Had the bag been found on a day between Monday and Saturday, there could have been a panic,” he said, adding that the members of the bomb disposal squad reached the spot around 1.30pm, almost three hours after getting information.

Deputy superintendent of police (Town) Ramakant Prasad, however, claimed that the personnel of the dog and the bomb disposal squads reached the spot within an hour.

“Neither any explosive, nor any incriminating article was recovered from the bag,” the DSP said, adding that someone might have played a prank by leaving the bag inside the building with the tag “Don’t touch”.

Station house officer of Gandhi Maidan police station Raj Bindu Prasad said a station diary had been lodged in connection with the recovery of the abandoned bag.

“Some prescriptions of medical practitioners and medicines have been found in the bag. Most of the prescriptions are illegible,” he said, adding that such bags were mainly used by medical representatives.

The station house officer said efforts were on to ascertain the identity of the person, who placed the tag on the bag.

“A police team will visit the complex after the offices open on Monday to probe into the matter,” he added.

Prasad said the incident of the recovery of the bag should not be blown out of proportions.