Panic gripped the Indian Institute of Management campus here on Thursday following a hoax call claiming that a bomb would go off at 1:30 pm.
The call was received at the institute’s reception at 12 noon. According to police, the caller spoke in English, communicated the message and hung up. The institute immediately alerted the Mico Layout police.
Bomb disposal units and dog squads, led by Veerabhadre Gowda, ACP (Mico-Layout sub division), rushed to the campus within half an hour. Gowda later told Deccan Herald that the panic on the campus was somewhat mitigated since the institute was largely deserted because of summer holidays.
“It took our men almost two hours to completely check all the buildings and the sprawling grounds,” he said. The police evacuated the buildings before sending in the dog squad, Gowda added.
“After a two-hour operation, we finally decided that the call was a hoax, as we did not find any suspicious material on the campus,” he said.
According to Kamal Pant, Additional Commissioner (Law and Order), the call has been traced to a private shop at Venkatadry Layout, behind Apollo Hospital, just a few metres from the campus. The police are now questioning the shop owner.
Pant added that though it became apparent after a while that the call was a hoax, the police searched every building thoroughly before declaring them safe.
A case has been registered at the Mico Layout police station.
All’s well
In a statement released by IIM-B Director, Pankaj Chandra said: “The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore is happy to report that all is well on campus. Yes, we did receive a call around 2 noon claiming that a bomb had been planted in our campus. The call was immediately reported to the jurisdictional police. We had the main buildings and classrooms evacuated. We are grateful to the police who responded to our call right away and undertook the necessary combing operations. Nothing outward was found. I am happy to report that our students, faculty and staff are safe.”