The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : He sent a bomb, now demands ransom

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Thursday, May 03, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

He sent a bomb, now demands ransom

Staff Reporter

Elusive bomb dispatcher keeps police on their toes

HYDERABAD: A day after dispatching a parcel bomb to a railway employee Nagalaxmi, 53, which left her injured, the anonymous caller on Wednesday demanded Rs. 20 lakhs to stop the attacks.

The mystery man continued to threaten the victim — he rang her up on her mobile phone from morning to evening. The city police have launched a massive hunt for him. They traced all the calls to Public Call Offices (PCOs) in Suryapet of Nalgonda district. The accused managed to slip the police dragnet by making calls from different booths.

Initially, police believed that he could be easily traced since one of the calls made before delivering the parcel bomb was from a mobile phone. Nagalaxmi and her relatives noted down the number.

Investigators contacted the mobile phone company to check the incoming and outgoing calls only to learn that it was the number of a PCO.

"Some PCO operators use mobile phones instead of landline phones," police said. Just when police realised that investigation reached a dead end, the caller rang up on Wednesday morning and demanded Rs. 20 lakhs.

Special police teams rushed to Suryapet after the call was traced to a PCO there. They positioned themselves near the PCO and waited for him to turn up.

He rang up again but from a different PCO. In all, he made five calls from different PCOs from morning to evening.

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Andhra Pradesh