With the number of flights that have received hoax bomb threats in four days crossing 25 on Thursday, Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu has said initial investigations do not point to a conspiracy and that most of the calls had been “made by minors and pranksters”.

A 17-year-old boy was taken into custody by the Mumbai Police on Wednesday for issuing threats to four flights on Monday, including three on international routes. Officials had said the teenager wanted to frame one of his friends, with whom he had a dispute over money. 

Mr Naidu also said his department is considering changes in rules and legislation to ensure that such hoax bomb calls do not happen in the future. 

“We can’t comment on a conspiracy but whatever little we have known, it (the threats) is coming from minors or some pranksters. For very little, petty things, they are trying to issue threats on social media or through phone calls. So these are isolated incidents, there is no kind of conspiracy we can comment on,” the minister said on Thursday.

“From what we know, they are all individuals, most of them minors, who don’t understand the whole idea of what they are doing, and they are creating this kind of inconvenience,” he added.

Mr Naidu said steps are being taken to ensure that a “strict barrier is created for people trying to do these kinds of pranks” and his department is pursuing changes in rules and legislation to achieve this. 

“The police are pursuing the cases and trying to find out who is behind this. The Ministry of Home Affairs is also helping us a lot. Airlines and passengers are facing a lot of inconvenience, so we don’t want these kinds of situations to be repeated. We are ensuring action is being taken on these kinds of issues so that they don’t become a precedent for the future,” the minister asserted. 

The civil aviation minister said his department has held meetings with airlines and security agencies as well.

Series Of Calls

Police had said four bomb threats were issued on Monday and two flights were delayed, including Air India flight AI 119 from Mumbai to New York, which was diverted to New Delhi, and one had to be cancelled.

At least seven flights were impacted on Tuesday, including Air India flight AI 127 from Delhi to Chicago, which was diverted to the remote Iqaluit airport in Canada. IndiGo flight 6E 98 from Damman in Saudi Arabia to Lucknow made an emergency landing in Jaipur and threats were received by Air India Express, Akasa Air and Alliance Air as well. 

On Wednesday, a New Delhi-Bengaluru Akasa Air flight (QP 1335) returned to the capital and Indigo’s Mumbai-Delhi flight 6E 651 was diverted to Ahmedabad. Five other flights also received bomb threats, including two from SpiceJet.

The threats continued on Thursday and an Air India Mumbai-London flight was forced to declare an emergency an hour before landing. The Mumbai-London flight was one of at least five operated by Air India and two each by Vistara and IndiGo that received bomb threats, taking the total since Monday to over 28. 

Teenager’s Arrest

A 17-year-old school dropout from Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh was taken into custody by the Mumbai Police on Wednesday over Monday’s threats. Officials said the teenager allegedly created a handle on X in the name of a friend with whom he had a dispute and posted bomb threats from it.

The Mumbai Police has registered seven first information reports (FIRs) in connection with the threats and so has the Delhi Police.

The sharing of 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh where by-polls are due, are turning into another tug-of-war between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party. The SP, which has already announced candidates for six seats, announced a seventh today, and said the Congress has agreed to contest only two seats. 

“Our agreement is final with the Congress. Of the 10 seats, the Congress will contest on two Khair (Aligarh) and Ghaziabad, while on the rest eight,the SP will contest,” SP Spokesperson Rajendra Chowdhury was quoted as saying by news agency Press Trust of India. 

The Congress disagreed. The party has been demanding five of the 10 seats going to polls in November, though it is on a considerably weak footing after its disasterous performance in Haryana.

State Congress chief Ajay Rai said, “We are not aware of this. As of now, we stand by our demand of five seats”. 

The SP has already declared candidates for seven seats including Muzaffarnagar’s  Meerapur from where it has fielded Sumbhul Rana.
The Congress wanted this seat, but NDTV has confirmed that this time, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is ready to give it only two seats — Khair and Ghaziabad. 

Sources said the SP chief has relented because the party is interested in contesting two seats in Maharashtra as part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi Alliance. 

After the Congress’s poor performance in the Haryana election, the SP had snubbed its request for seat sharing in the by-polls. It was not just about Congress performance though. As in Madhya Pradesh, the two parties had failed to come to an understanding about the seats in Haryana  — which is one of the reasons attributed to its defeat in both states where it was widely expected to win.

In both cases, state Congress leaders were blamed – Kamal Nath in Madhya Pradesh and Bhupinder Hooda in Haryana. 

Nine of the assembly seats in UP fell vacant after their MLAs were elected as MPs in the Lok Sabha polls. Bypolls are being held in the Sisamau due to the disqualification of its MLA, Samajwadi Party’s Irfan Solanki, who was convicted in a criminal case. Except Milkipur, the Election Commission has announced polls on the rest nine seats. 

The polling seats will be held on November 13.

The candidate for Meerapur, Sumbul Rana, is the daughter-in-law of former BSP MP Qadir Rana, who has now joined the Samajwadi Party. Sumbul Rana’s husband is Shah Mohammad Rana.