The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Fake suicide bomber creates flutter

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 27, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Fake suicide bomber creates flutter

Staff Reporter

Says he wanted to blast the passport office as officials were delaying his sister’s documents

HYDERABAD: A fake suicide bomber scared the wits out of people and the police at the Regional Passport Office, Hyderabad, only to end up behind the bars here on Tuesday.

The self-proclaimed suicide bomber, Rupesh Kumar Sinha, wearing a jerkin with a shawl over it, was spotted walking straight to the token counter even as hundreds of people stood in the queue at the RPO around 6.30 a.m.

If the two blinking bulbs dangling out from his jerkin made the waiting passport applicants nervous, the way he covered his face with the shawl added to their apprehensions.

Unmindful of the scare he was creating, Sinha told a bystander: “I am a human bomb and want to blast the passport office, as they are making me run around to get a passport for my sister.”

The shocked person ran to security constable Srinivas Reddy who tried to frisk Sinha away but the latter resisted.

He managed to overpower him and pulled off his shawl and jerkin only to see some pipes resembling bombs and wires connected to a digital timer. They took out that ‘bomb’, threw it into the open parking lot, dragged Sinha to a corner and called in the Market Police.

The bomb disposal squad, led by Sub-Inspector Nagasai Venkata Ramana, after a close examination, found no explosive material inside the pipes and heaved a sigh of relief.

The SI later explained that Sinha made the pipes using a newspaper and wrapped a pink paper around it making it took like a bundle. He connected a digital timer, a battery and two bulbs to it.

Depressed

Inquiries by the Market Police revealed that Sinha of Adoni in Kurnool discontinued his engineering course. He claimed to have slipped into depression since he had failed to secure his younger sister’s passport application which was submitted a year ago.

“I wanted the Government to understand the agony of lakhs of people like me failing to get proper response from passport officials. I am not worried of the consequences, he told the police.

Case registered

A case under section 506 (criminal intimidation) was booked against the youth. He was taken into custody and admitted to a corporate hospital as he was suffering from a congenial heart disease.

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