53-year-old man arrested for bomb threat hoax at Maharashtra secretariat

Mumbai: A 53-year-old man has been arrested for sending an e-mail to the Maharashtra government threatening that he was going to place a bomb in the state secretariat as he was angry over the suffering of children due to the 'apathy' of the education department, police said on Tuesday.

The threat was found to be a hoax. Shailesh Shinde, the accused, was arrested from Pune and produced before a court here which sent him in police custody till June 25, an official said.

He allegedly sent the e-mail around 6.15 on Monday evening, sending security agencies into a tizzy.

He was going to place a bomb in the Mantralaya, the state government's headquarters in south Mumbai, as the school education department was shirking its responsibility towards children, he said in the message, according to the police official.

Four teams of the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad were rushed but no bomb was found, the official added.

Shinde was subsequently arrested from his residence in Ghorpadi area of Pune, he said.

Earlier the police had said that Shinde was upset over his child not getting admission in a school and had sent e-mails complaining about the school to the Chief Minister's Office. As he did not get any response, he sent the bomb threat e-mail to the state Home Department, they had said.

But a later official release did not mention any specific school admission issue being the reason for his act.

A case was filed against Shinde at Marine Drive police station under IPC sections 506 (criminal intimidation), 505 (1)(B) (publishing any rumour with intention to cause alarm or fear) and 182 (giving false information to public servant), the official said, adding that further probe was on.