Much ado about nothing: A search being carried out at India Gate in Delhi after the police received a bomb hoax call

A fortnight ago, an SMS about a bomb at Bangalore’s Garuda mall spread like wild fire in the city. The message, which was soon found to be a hoax, was traced to the mobile phone of Vikas Bohra, a 21-year-old college student and the son of a rich, well-known businessman of Bangalore. When they learned that the police had picked up their son for creating a bomb scare, his parents were horrified. But in spite of their repeated pleas that Bohra was a “quiet, honest and studious boy who couldn’t have sent such a vile SMS”, he was kept in the lock-up for two days.

Ashok Kumar, assistant commissioner of police (ACP), Bangalore police, decided to crosscheck Bohra’s antecedents. He called on the principal and students of Mahaveer Jain College where Bohra was a final year commerce student and a completely different story unfolded. “Bohra’s peers said he bunked classes and performed dismally in his exams,” says Kumar.

The Mumbai terror attack has thrown up a worrying phenomenon of adolescents seeking a kind of vicarious pleasure in making hoax calls about bombs and creating panic in the process. In Bangalore, five schools received such alarming messages in one day. “The calls created chaos. Policemen and dog squads were searching everything from tiffin boxes to classroom desks. Young children were panicking and crying,” says Kumar.

In Delhi, the figures were just as grim. In the 13 days following the Mumbai blasts, the Delhi police received 17 bomb hoax calls, alerting them of bombs placed at a city-based multiplex, inside the Red Fort and several other public places. Of the total calls, three warned about bombs at India Gate, the capital’s tourist hotspot.

Following investigations, the Delhi police arrested seven youths. “All of them were either teenagers or pre-teens,” says Anil Shukla, deputy commissioner of police (DCP), south district, Delhi Police.

What shocked Shukla most was the age of the callers. “We arrested two children aged eight and 10 years, respectively,” he says. In fact, the eight-year-old caused maximum panic in the police by informing the police control room about a bomb at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). “It took us over four hours to search the entire AIIMS premises,” says Shukla.

The police figured that sending these boys to juvenile homes is not a solution. “Making hoax calls is a bailable offence. Most of these boys come from rich families and are out of jail in no time,” says Bangalore police’s Ashok Kumar.

So instead of juvenile homes, the Delhi Police are taking adolescent bomb hoax callers to counsellors. “A panel of counsellors tries to understand why these boys make hoax calls, reason with them and teach them about social responsibility,” says DCP Shukla.

Psychologist Dr Rajat Mitra, who heads the Delhi police’s counselling panel, found that most boys admitted to deriving pleasure by causing chaos. “They fantasised very actively about the consequences of the call. They visualised people running, falling, screaming,” says Mitra. One boy told the panel that he felt powerful by scaring people.

The counselling team also found the root of this behaviour to be neglect at home. “Most boys said their parents had busy professional and social lives and were not available when they needed them. Very often, the parents did not even have a clue about what was happening in their children’s lives,” says Mitra.

Agrees Bangalore-based counsellor Dr Ali Khwaja: “Lack of parental attention leads to deviant behaviour in adolescents. This is because some parents are never available to their children and, therefore, they don’t know what their boys are up to.” Mitra has counselled about 40 boys so far — all in the mean age group of 15 to 20 years. “Most hail from upper middle class families. In most cases, both parents work,” says Mitra.

Mitra recalls the case of a 15-year-old boy arrested for making a call about a bomb planted in a public place. “His parents did not know that he skipped school regularly. When the school principal sent a notice to the parents, the boy signed it himself and returned it,” says Mitra. When the boy was arrested by the police, his parents talked of him as a sincere, hard working student, who couldn’t possibly have made a scare call.

The peer group, on the other hand, always knows about the deviant types among them. “Vikas Bohra’s peers were not surprised when they heard about his SMS prank,” says ACP Ashok Kumar. The Bangalore police are now planning to ask the peer group to inform the school or college administration about the likely trouble makers among them.

The confidence to make hoax calls is not developed in a day. “These boys start with small-time stealing and lying — and getting away with it,” says Mitra. When small activities don’t excite them, they try bigger exploits like creating mass chaos. “They assume they’ll get away with this too,” adds Mitra.

The Bangalore police plans to nip the problem in the bud. Police representatives have started holding interactive sessions in schools and colleges about the dire consequences of crying wolf. “We ask students to provide information instead of creating panic,” says Kumar. Police officials have already visited the city’s top schools, including Bishop Cotton’s School, Baldwin High School and St Joseph’s College.

As for Vikas Bohra, his photographs and a write-up of his misdeeds have been plastered on the notice boards of several schools and colleges in the city. Kumar says, “The idea is to ostracise the boy and create social disapproval among the peer group. That will work better than a jail term.”