in Bhubaneswar on Saturday. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee
Bhubaneswar, Jan. 23: A 40-year-old man from Odisha was today detained in Pune for allegedly making hoax calls about bombs to Biju Patnaik International Airport that forced a Mumbai-bound GoAir flight to make an emergency landing at Nagpur.
The call was made by Sanjeev Kumar Mishra, who is a resident of Bhubaneswar. The Bhubaneswar airport authorities promptly sounded an alert that forced the flight with 155 passengers, including 123 from Bhubaneswar, to make an emergency landing in Nagpur.
Officials at the airport said that three calls were made to the terminal manager between 8.42am and 8.50am today. "The caller used abusive language and threatened to explode the plane. Later, we informed the agencies concerned and the airlines following which the flight made an emergency landing in Nagpur. We also conducted a thorough search of other flights leaving Bhubaneswar," said airport director Sharad Kumar.
The flight had taken off from Bhubnaeswar at 8.20am. It landed in Nagpur at 9.30am following the alert. However, nothing suspicious was found on board after a thorough search.
"We are in constant touch with our counterparts in Pune and if necessary, we will bring Mishra, who has been detained by Pune police, to Bhubaneswar for further investigation. His family members in Chandrasekharpur have told us that that they had not been in touch with him since driving him out of the house because of his erratic behaviour," said deputy commissioner of police Satyabrata Bhoi.
The police said that Mishra, who obtained a commerce degree from P.N. College in Khurda, had problems with his family members because of his drinking habits. "His friends told us that he was undergoing psychiatric treatment since 2007. We are also told that he has shifted his base to Pune. We are verifying his antecedents," said a senior police official.
Sources said Mishra got married in February 2014 but it ended in a divorce this year.
"His father has driven him out of his house because he used to pick up frequent quarrels with his family members.," said a police official.
