How far one can go to avoid a relative

The Indian police has arrested a 29-year-old Bangladeshi national for allegedly sending a hoax e-mail to the Delhi airport about an explosive in a Kolkata-bound flight.

The Bangladeshi, identified as Mohd Nazrul Islam, has admitted to his crime, claimed police.

Deputy Commissioner of Delhi Police Usha Rangnani said, on February 27, Delhi airport authorities had received an email alert stating that a passenger aboard a Delhi-Kolkata flight might be carrying explosives. The email urged authorities to conduct thorough checks of all bags and luggage.

It put the airport authorities to declare a full emergency. However, the e-mail was later found to be a hoax.

During investigations, it was found that the accused created a new e-mail address to send the mail, our New Delhi correspondent reports.

"We checked the WiFi (used to send the e-mail) and the connection was found to be that of a hotel in Kolkata. At that time 40 guests were staying in that hotel and all of them were using the same WiFi. Almost all of them were Bangladeshi nationals," Rangnani said.

The police said the details of the 40 people were checked and it was found that one Amardeep Kumar had come to the hotel to meet his relative after taking the Delhi-Kolkata flight mentioned in the e-mail.

"On interrogation, he said he had gone to the hotel to meet his brother-in-law Islam who had been staying there for almost a month," Rangnani said.

"Islam's phone was physically examined but he had deleted its entire history. Islam admitted to his guilt after being grilled by the police and disclosed that he had sent the e-mail to get the flight cancelled to avoid meeting his brother-in-law," she added.

Islam was arrested after bringing him to Delhi on a transit remand, the official said.

According to Rangnani, Islam claimed he had done a course in aviation and that he had been staying in India to avoid lenders in Bangladesh as he is under huge debt.