Kerala police conducted a comprehensive search of the state Secretariat, the administrative complex, in the wake of a bomb threat on Thursday. The police control room received a threat call stating that explosives would go off inside the Secretariat complex, sources told PTI. Immediately, police officers carried out extensive searches both inside and outside the Secretariat building with the assistance of sniffer dogs.
The Kerala police headquarters received the threat message through the Emergency Response Support System, a single emergency number 112, at 11:30 AM. Soon, the city police were alerted.
At the Secretariat, not even the surrounding stores and parked cars were exempted from observation. Unconfirmed rumours claimed that the police identified the caller's identity.
The police told Manorama that a suspect who is a resident of Uchakkada, Pozhiyoor and mentally unsound has been taken into custody. He is currently being questioned by police.
Later, the police confirmed that the threat, received at their headquarters on Thursday morning, was a prank call made by a man suspected to be mentally unsound.
"A man, identified as Nidhin, was taken into custody. He is a resident of Uchakkada in Pozhiyoor (in Thiruvananthapuram). As per our primary assumption, he is not mentally stable," a senior police officer told PTI.
The Secretariat is the administrative complex that houses the offices of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and other ministers.
Earlier, a 12-year-old boy called the police control room last week and threatened to kill the CM. After the call at around five o'clock in the evening, the police located the boy in Ernakulam. The boy's parents said the call was an accident. However, the motive is yet to be known.
The boy was a Class 7 student. Further, investigations are underway.