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A software professional was arrested at the New Delhi airport on Sunday for allegedly making a hoax bomb call to delay the take-off of a Bangalore-bound GoAir plane, as he was late for the flight.
Abhishek Gupta (25), a software professional with Infosys, was arrested for claiming that a bomb has been planted and there was suspicious activity around the aircraft which led to panic and delay of the flight.
Gupta was coming from Lucknow in Gorakhnath Express and was expected to reach the capital by 6 am to catch the 8.45 am GoAir flight to Bangalore, a senior police official said.
"He was coming from Lucknow and it got delayed. He called the GoAir's call centre prior to the departure of the flight. Upon his arrival at the airport, he was arrested," a senior police official said.
The official said he first called up the airline call centre informing them he would be late and asked the staff to reschedule his journey and put him on the second flight to Bangalore.
But his request was refused by the staff, the official said, adding that Gupta was desperate to reach Bangalore and around 8.30 am, again called up at their call centre telling the staff that there was some suspicious object on the plane.
"His aim was to delay the take-off of the flight so that he could reach the airport and board the flight," the official said. There were 158 passengers and six crew on board the plane, which took off for Bangalore after being delayed by about four hours.