'Bomb' scare in south Delhi market

New Delhi, Jan 8: Police sent into a tizzy after they received a call from a person claiming that a bomb was fitted to a scooter with a Jammu and Kashmir registration number in southeast Delhi's Greater Kailash-I area.

The call was received at around 6.30 pm following which police teams, along with a bomb disposal squad, was sent for a search operation, but no bomb was found," DCP (South East) M S Randhawa said.

The caller told the police that there were two scooters parked at a market in GK-I area for quite some time, and the one bearing a registration number pertaining to Jammu and Kashmir, had some "suspicious object" in it, a police official said.

The area, teeming with shoppers and guests of scores of restaurants and pubs located nearby, was searched. The scooters were soon found and the suspicious object turned out to be a large battery, the official added.

Yesterday, security was stepped up at Indira Gandhi International Airport here after its control room received a "non-specific call" about a man heading for Germany after "doing something big" in the national capital.

A senior official said that such calls are technically called non-specific calls and that particular one originated from an international number, suspected to be executed through the Internet.

A day before the airport incident, the police control room received a call about a bomb at Parliament premises but it turned to be hoax, and the caller was tracked down at a northeast Delhi locality.

The caller was a 40-year-old mentally challenged person who called up the control room at around 6.10 pm, following which several police teams, along with bomb disposal squads, and fire tenders were rushed to the Parliament premises.

The national capital is on a high alert till January 26 and security has been already stepped up following the terror attack at Pathankot and then inputs received by the police about the presence of suspected Jaish-e-Mohammad key members here.

PTI