Joseph from Aluva held for making bomb threat call to Guruvayur temple.

Panic at Guruvayur temple after hoax bomb threat

DECCAN CHRONICLE. Published    May 21, 2017

 Thrissur: A hoax bomb call created a scare at the Sree Krishna temple at Guruvayur for some time on Saturday morning.

The hoax caller rang up  manager T.V. Krishnadas at 8. 15 a.m. and said that  he belonged to an extremist organisation and threatened to explode a human bomb similar to that used to kill former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. He said that the attack was in  protest against the rampant corruption in the devaswom.

Mr Krishnadas noted down the caller’s mobile number displayed on the land phone and handed it over to the devaswom officials and Guruvayur assistant commissioner of police. Though the bomb squad  searched the temple and its premises, no suspicious object was found. Finally, it was declared as  a hoax call. All the people entering the temple are scanned with  metal detectors by the cops.  

The caller was traced by 3 pm and he was identified as    Balan aka Joseph, 65, of Aluva town, who was using the sim card brought in the name of a close relative.

Guruvayur ACP P.A. Sivadasan said that Balan  was a rag picker and had visited the temple two years ago.  He was allegedly not given the daily feast at the temple and was verbally abused by the security guards.

The police also recovered from him a cloth bag provided  to the devotees from the Guruvayur temple which has the land phone number of the temple manager.

A case has been registered against  Balan  for making the threat call and he will be produced  before the Chavakkad magistrate on Sunday, the Guruvayur temple police said.