THRISSUR: The
bomb threat
at
Guruvayur Sree Krishna
Temple turned out to be a hoax after
police traced
the call and took a 65-year-old man from Aluva into custody on Saturday.
Guruvayur ACP
PA Sivadasan
confirmed that Punnapra native Balakrishnan, who settled in Aluva several years ago, had made that call and that there was no extremist links in the case. Balakrishnan and his wife are ragpickers. "He admitted that he felt like making a threatening call when he came across an empty prasadam kit of the temple while ragpicking on Saturday morning. He claims he was denied the free meal at the temple three years ago," he said.
Earlier in the day, security at the Sree Krishna Temple was beefed after an anonymous caller threatened to destroy the temple using a human bomb. The call was received around 8.15 am on the landline used by the devaswom manager on duty, T V Krishnadas.
The caller, who claimed to be the leader of an extremist organization, said the temple would be razed to ground just like former PM Rajiv Gandhi was killed by LTTE's human bomb. The caller reportedly said that he was planning such an action as the devaswom administration was steeped in corruption.
Bomb and dog squads were deployed at the temple to detect the presence of explosives and security was augmented with the deployment of extra police personnel. Devaswom chairman Peethambara Kurup, who sought a through probe, wanted more security at the temple.
Sivadasan said the anonymous caller was identified using the caller ID facility at the devaswom. Though the phone belonged to a person at Punnapra in Alappuzha, the tower location was traced to an area near Kochi. A police team led by
Guruvayur CI
probed the incident at Kochi and Alappuzha and later nabbed the accused, the ACP said.
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