Title - Farmer makes hoax call, lands in jail - The Narasapur Express was halted for three hours

On one of his routine visits to his son’s house in the city, agriculturalist Tummala Govinda Rao from Prakasam district decided to test the efficiency of the police.

His decision to verify on how the police would react during emergencies caused inconvenience to hundreds of commuters and finally landed him in prison.

Govinda Rao (61), a farmer from Gundlapally village of Maddipadu mandal in Prakasam, frequently visits his son at  Kukkatpally.

On March 23, he boarded the Shirdi Sai Nagar Express and got down at the Secunderabad railway station around 4 p.m., from where he took an MMTS and went to the Nampally railway station. Around that time Narsapur Express chucked into platform no. 5 at around 9 p.m.

Govinda, who wanted to test the efficiency of the police. immediately picked up his mobile phone, dialled the emergency service number 108 and told the receiver that a bomb was planted in the Narsapur Express and switched off his mobile phone.

The 108 staff alerted the police, who swung into action. The Narasapur Express was halted for three hours, the local and railway police, along with bomb disposal squads, lodged search operations.

Other trains, which were supposed to be on track, were delayed by 70 minutes causing inconvenience to hundreds of passengers.

The government railway police took up the investigation to trace the hoax caller, and after tracking down the phone number, nabbed Govinda Rao at his son’s house at Kukkatpally.

GRP superintendent M Kantha Rao appealed to the general public not to make hoax bomb calls as it would cause inconvenience not only to passengers but also distract police and railway authorities from discharging their duties effectively.