WIPRO employee arrested for bomb hoax

IT pro held for bomb hoax

Staff rushed out of the Wipro office on MG Road and bomb disposal squads and sniffer dogs were rushed to the spot after a staffer made the hoax call.

Deccan Herald

Twelve hours after the Wipro office on MG Road recieved a bomb hoax, a 30-year-old software engineer of the company was arrested. Prashanth Kumar threw his office, in SB Towers on MG Road, into a state of near total chaos by making the hoax call on Wednesday.

Kumar, a resident of Frazer Town, made the call to his office at around 9.30 am.
Following the call, officers and staff rushed out of the office. The bomb disposal squads and sniffer dogs that were rushed to the spot, however, found nothing in the entire building, including a newspaper office located in the premises and the parking lot in the basement.

Call traced
The police traced the call to a telephone booth on Wheeler Road and swung into action. They collected details of all the calls made during the time of the hoax and called up the numbers. One of the calls, it turned out, was made by Kumar to his wife, immediately after making the hoax call.

Kumar, who was later released, told police he wanted to prove that security at software companies in the country’s “Silicon Valley” is in shambles and so played a prank. Meanwhile speaking to reporters in Bangalore on Wednesday, Industries Minister P G R Sindhia said he will convene a meeting of IT and biotechnology leaders soon to discuss security related issues in the wake of reports that terrorists had planned to attack some software companies.

Mr Sindhia said he was in constant touch with these industrialists and assured them that the government would provide adequate security so that untoward incidents are averted.

During the next meeting, the state Cabinet also would discuss issue of security.
Mr Sindhia asserted that there was no law and order problem in the state and there was no need to panic.