Kochi:
Police have arrested a 40-year-old man in Kochi for making an anonymous telephone call saying that a bomb had been planted at the nearby Nedumbassery airport on Tuesday morning, which later turned out to be hoax.
Police sources said the man, Rajiv Pillai, said to be mentally unstable, was arrested from nearby Chengampuzha Nagar on a complaint by the airport authorities for making the prank call. Pillai was under treatment at Kolkata and had recently come to Kochi, sources said.
The man read a news report in an English daily about hike in ticket fares following which he was provoked, sources said.
The Air India office at the airport had received the call at 6.45 am. Immediately, bomb and dog squads, fire force personnel and CISF were deployed and a thorough search made.
However, no suspicious objects were found, airport sources said.
All flights were also thoroughly checked, they said.